MAKE-AT-HOME
THINGS
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CAROLYN
SHERWIN
BAILEY
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MARIAN ELIZABETH BAILE\
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BOYS^ MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
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BOYS'
MAKE-AT-HOME
THINGS
BY
CAROLYN SHERWIN BAILEY
AND
MARIAN ELIZABETH BAILEY
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS AND DIAGRAMS
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NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
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Copyright, igi2, by
Frederick A. Stokes Company
All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign
languages, including the Scandinavian
September^ igi2
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tCI.A31U875
PREFACE
Make-At-Home-Things for Boys aims to keep
boys busy and entertained. It furnishes them
with simple directions for making toys and useful
articles, all of which are carefully pictured. The
aim of the book, is to give boys an idea of the
craft possibilities which lie in the crudest mate-
rials, often the waste material of the home and in
this way to develop real artistic ability.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Preface v
The Making of Tools Necessary for Whittling i
How TO Make a Practical Work Bench ... 7
Work Bench Accessories ....... 15
How TO Make a Turning Lathe ..... 21
How TO Make a Toy Train .... = .. 29
Out-door Toys 37
How TO Make Your Own Desk Set .... 45
Wild Animals You can Make 53
How TO Make a Set of Mission Furniture . . 59
Toys That Hide in the Wood Box 65
The Wonderful Dodo Bird 75
A Fleet of Toy Boats 83
How to Make a Play Tent 89
How TO Make Your Own Tops 95
The Farm the Scissors Built loi
More Box Plays 107
A Recipe for a Noah's Ark 113
How TO Make Your Own Uniform 117
Jointed Toy Animals. How to Make Them . . 123
Your Own Circus 129
Bead Work for Boys i35
How TO Make Stick Pictures 143
vii
Vlll
CONTENTS
A Toy Indian Village ....
Corn Toys and How to Make Them
How TO Make a Marble Bag .
How TO Make Your Own School Box
A Home-made Christmas Tree Stand
How TO Wrap Christmas Parcels .
Your Own Wireless Receiving Station
PAGE
149
155
165
171
177
183
ILLUSTRATIONS
Whittled Toy Train Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
Knife-Strop ^
Whittled Weather Vane; Kite Stick; "Cat"; Reel
for Fish Line; "Cat" Stick 38
File; Ink Well; Pen Tray 46
Book Rack 5°
Whittled Wild Animals: Giraffe, Camel ... 54
Whittled Wild Animals : Bear, Lion, "Darwin" . 56
Dolls' Chair and Table Whittled in Mission Style . 60
Dolls' Whittled Chest of Drawers ; Dolls' Whittled
Bed 64
Toy Barnyard Made of Kindling Wood ... 68
A Set of Dolls' Furniture Made by Gluing Together
Blocks of Kindling Wood 74
The Dodo Bird 80
A Cork Raft; A Cork Sail Boat 84
Whittled Toy Sail Boat 88
Whittled Clown Top 9^
Beet Top; Top Made of Graduated Disks; Button
Mold Top 98
ix
X ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
Cart, Barn and Barrow Made of Cardboard Boxes . 104
Circus Parade (The Cage is Made of a Shoe Box) . 108
The Ark ; Cardboard Animals Who Live in the Ark . 112
Going Aboard the Ark 114
Pattern for Soldier's Cap ; The Finished Uniform :
Cap, Shield, Sword and Epaulets 120
Jointed Cardboard Animals 126
A Bead Loom Made of a Box Cover .... 140
Stick Illustration of the Story of The Three Bears . 146
Corn Cob Pappoose: Corn Cob Indian . . . .158
Whittled School Box; Chamois Marble Bag . .164
BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME
THINGS
THE MAKING OF TOOLS NECESSARY
FOR WHITTLING
THE tools which one will need for whittling —
the kind of whittling that makes something
besides sphnters — are very simple and few in
number. Any boy's pocket will furnish a jack-
knife, and it is pretty sure to be a sharp one.
With a knife, a pencil, and some pieces of
wood, all the other tools may be made. Bass-
wood is the easiest wood to handle because it is
soft, and very close grained. If basswood can
not be had, pine is the next best wood, and an
old egg crate, which any grocer will be glad to
get rid of, will furnish you with enough whittling
material for a long time.
The scale for measuring (Fig. 3) should be
made first, as it is the tool most necessary in
laying out the other tools. One of the thin strips
from the side of the egg crate may be used for
I
2 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
this. The outUne of the scale must be drawn on
the wood with a hard pencil. A "6 H" is the
best. The "H'' means ''hard," and the number
of H's shows the degree of hardness. The pen-
cil should be sharpened on both ends— one end
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rubbed to a fine point on sandpaper, and the
other end to a chisel point. The sharp point is to
mark, accurately, the points to which lines are
to be drawn, and the chisel point is to draw the
lines with. After the outline is drawn it may
be cut.
First take off a splinter or two to determine the
direction of the grain, because one long cut
against the grain might spoil your work. When
this is determined, you should cut down almost
to the outline, using a long, free stroke from the
shoulder for the cutting in the direction of the
grain. For the cross-grained cutting at the ends,
the knife is held in the four fingers, with the
TOOLS FOR WHITTLING 3
thumb steadying the near side of the wood, and
the cut is made toward the thumb. Only a very
short cut may be made at a time, and then a bit
of wood is chpped away so that the next cut may
be made. This cutting, also, should be done
near, but not on, the line. After the model is
roughly cut out, it should be worked down very
carefully to the lines, the beveled edge cut, and
then sandpapered smooth all over. The sand-
paper must be put over a small block of wood, and
held very flat. Otherwise it will spoil a straight
surface. Then the graduations are to be put on.
If nothing better is at hand, the spacing may be
done with mother's tape measure. Lay off the
spaces with the pointed end of the pencil, and then
draw the lines which show the spacing, making
those which show the sixteenths. Vie'' long; the
eighths, Vs' long; the quarters, %g'' long; the
halves, ^/ig", or the full width of the bevel.
This must be done with a pencil, for ink would
run into the wood and spread. The inch dimen-
sions should be marked i, 2, 3, etc., and a light
coat of shellac or varnish will add much to the
durability of the scale. The back edge of the
scale may be used as a straight edge, and to lay
the pencil against for drawing lines, but it should
be remembered that the scale itself — that is, the
4 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
graduated side — must never be used for this. If
it were, the graduations would soon be spoiled.
The tool which is most necessary next to the
scale IS the square (Fig. 4), and this should also
be made with great accuracy. It is used to test
two adjoining edges, to see if they are square
with each other. In making anything of wood,
one of the largest surfaces is generally made per-
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fectly true, and marked with a little cross (x),
designating it as the "face." One of the adjoin-
ing edges — not a cross-grained one — is also made
true and square with the first surface, and marked
with a second cross, as the ''working edge."
Then all the other measuring and squaring is
done from these two surfaces.
The piece of wood to be tested should be held
in the left hand, on a level with the eye, and
TOOLS FOR WHITTLING 5
the square held in the right hand, with one of the
inner edges resting against the wood, and the
other projecting over it is moved back and forth.
Any unevenness in the wood will readily be seen.
The outside edges of the square may also be used
for testing the evenness of wide flat surfaces.
It is made like the pattern, of two strips of wood,
with a fitted joint glued together.
The knife strop shown in Fig. i is a great help
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in whittling, because it will keep your knife in
good condition. A piece of the heavier wood at
the end of the ^gg crate may be used for this. It
is made from a strip measuring i^'' wide by 11"
long, and the strip of leather (cut from a dis-
carded razor strop) is glued on. The ]4>'' bevel
is continued all the way around the handle on
both sides to make it fit the hand. The hole in
the end is to hang it up by, and may be made
with a hammer and nail, or with a bit and brace
if you have one.
6 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
The pencil sharpener (Fig. 2), is also a very
necessary help in whittling and it is very simple
to make. A strip of thin wood i^"x7" forms
the foundation. This is narrowed down at the
handle end to }i^\ The curves may be marked
on the outline, free hand, and in cutting you must
be very careful to remember the grain of the
wood. The curves at the ends should be cut
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from each side toward the middle of the end,
gradually working into a crosscut. The curves
at the sides must be cut from the wider part to-
ward the handle, using the point of the knife, and
working with great care so as not to split the
wood. A strip of sandpaper i"x3" is glued on
and the sharpener is complete.
With these tools finished a boy is ready to be-
gin some real whittling, and make other models
which will be quite as useful, and very much more
attractive.
KNIFE-STROP
HOW TO MAKE A PRACTICAL WORK-
BENCH
A GOOD practical workbench may be made
by any boy who can handle the simplest
tools and procure a little suitable lumber.
The lumber should be bought at a lumber yard,
in the rough, which will cost a great deal less
than finished boards.
It will require 26 ft. of two-by-four pine boards,
12 ft. of two-by-six's, and 27^ ft. of one-by-six's.
The two-by-four's cost one and three-quarters
cents a running foot, the two-by-six's are two and
a half cents, and the one-by-six's, one and a half
cents. The boards come in regular lengths, from
ten feet up to sixteen, or in some cases, up to
twenty-four feet long. It will be best to get a
twenty-four foot one-by-six board if possible, a
twelve foot two-by-six, one twelve foot and one
fourteen foot two-by-four. This will make the
total cost for boards one dollar and twelve cents.
Aside from the pine boards for the bench itself
it will require a piece of oak measuring three by
four inches and thirty-four inches long, for the
7
8 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
bench vise; a screw and handle for the vise (cost-
ing thirty-five cents at any hardware store) ; a
pound of four inch nails; and two square headed
iron bolts, one half inch in diameter and four
inches long, each fitted with two iron washers
and one square nut.
Saw off, first, from the twelve foot two-by-
four, four pieces thirty-three inches long. These
are the legs of the bench, and they are to stand
with their broad four-inch faces toward the ends
of the bench. Then cut in each one of these
joints like those shown in Fig. i. The sides in
which the joints are cut face toward each other
at the ends of the bench and into them is fitted the
supporting framework.
For the lower framework cut from the four-
teen foot two-by-four two pieces forty-two inches
long and four pieces nineteen inches long. Two
of the nineteen-inch pieces are to be left as they
are, but the other two and the two forty-two inch
pieces should have joints cut at the ends like Fig.
2. These joints, as well as the joints in the up-
rights, are cut with a saw, and the wood is split
out with a chisel. Then these four jointed pieces
are fitted together and glued or nailed to form a
framework nineteen by forty-two inches. The
four uprights are then fitted in place and nailed.
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Diagrams of a Practical Work-bench.
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A PRACTICAL WORK-BENCH ii
increasing the width of the ends to twenty-three
inches. Then the other two nineteen-inch pieces
are fitted into the top of the uprights across each
end, and nailed in place. Four braces (Fig. 3)
for the ends are made from two sixteen-inch
pieces of the one-by-six stock. Each piece is first
cut in two, lengthwise, with a rip saw. This
makes four pieces twenty inches long by three
inches wide. Mark the center joint of each end
of each piece. Then measure on both sides, from
each end, a distance of one and a half inches.
Connect these points with the end points by a line
and saw ofif the corners, leaving on each end a
right-angled point. The braces are then nailed
in place as shown in Fig. 4.
This finishes the body part of the bench.
Next, cut from the one-by-six board a piece fifty-
six inches long. Fit it across the front of the
frame, just even, or flush with the top, and pro-
jecting seven inches beyond the uprights at either
end. Then nail in position.
Cut from the twelve foot two-by-six board two
pieces fifty-six inches long. Place one of them
across the top of the bench at the extreme front,
so that it is flush with the wide surface of the
front board. Nail this to the end framework and
nail the second piece in position just back of it.
12 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
It is necessary for this much of the top to be
very heavy, for this is where the heavy strain of
the work will come. The remainder of the top
is made of two strips of one-by-six wood. In
order to make this even with the two front strips
which are thicker it is necessary to put pieces
underneath it at each end. For these cut a piece
of one-by-six board twelve inches long and rip it
in two. Place these strips along the end frame,
then place the top boards on them and nail all in
position. When this is done the whole top of the
bench may be made partially smooth, if it is de-
sired, with a jack plane. Then cut one more
strip of one-by-six fifty-six inches long and nail
across the back of the bench, allowing it to project
three inches above the top.
The vise, as it comes from the store, consists of
a long, straight, square-headed screw about an
inch in diameter, which ends in a round iron
plate and a T-shaped pipe. The plate is loose but
not removable. Through the T a long wooden
handle fits. Beside this there is an elliptical plate
holding a threaded pipe which the screw works
in. To put it together, first make a piece from
the remaining two-by-six like Fig. 5. This piece
forms the inner side of the vise and fits inside of
A PRACTICAL WORK-BENCH 13
the front piece of the bench, just touching the
under side of the top, and outside of the lower
framework. Its edge should be four inches in
from tlie front leg of the bench. Corresponding
holes are made with a bit and brace in the front
piece of the bench and counter-sunk a half inch.
The two pieces are then bolted together, the heads
of the bolts and the iron washer fitting down in
the counter-sink, and the other washer being
placed under the nut on the other side. The re-
ceptacle for the vise screw is fastened in position
through the back of Fig. 5.
Next, the piece of oak is prepared for the vise
jaw. It is slanted off at the ends like Fig. 6, the
outer edges rounded, a hole somewhat larger than
the vise screw cut through as shown, and a joint
cut through with chisel and hammer near the bot-
tom. Into this joint fit Fig. 7, a piece of wood
one by four inches and twelve inches long, which
is intended to keep the jaws of the vise approx-
imately even. It fits into the oak with a drive fit
and has holes zigzagged or '^staggered" across it
into which a round peg three inches fits. By
placing this peg in different holes the bottom
opening of the vise may be adjusted to correspond
with the desired top opening.
14 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
The long screw of the vise is sHpped through
the hole made for it, and the plate is screwed in
place.
lYor^ Bench ComroCe^e,.
This completes a bench which will prove a great
help to the boy workman, and which takes
scarcely more time in making than it has in de-
scribing.
WORKBENCH ACCESSORIES
WHEN you have made yourself this fine, big
workbench you will find out very soon
that there are a number of workbench accesso-
ries which will make it much more convenient and
desirable.
The first thing that will be missed is a tool
rack. With tools scattered all over the bench it
is difficult to do good work. It means a waste
of time and sometimes a waste of temper, while,
if the tools are hanging right before one's eyes
in an orderly row, each one may be taken as it is
needed, and replaced again when one is through,
and the work will go on smoothly.
A single pine board six inches wide, one inch
thick and sixteen feet long will make all the ac-
cessories one can want. It is better to procure a
finished board from the planing mill. It will cost
three or four cents a running foot — a total cost at
the most of sixty-four cents.
For the tool rack cut from the board two fifty-six-
inch lengths. Cut one of these in two lengthwise
with a rip saw and plane the sawed edge smooth
IS
1 6 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
and square with the face or wide, flat side of the
board. With a pencil and scale mark the posi-
tions on the centers of the holes shown in Fig. i.
Then when the centers have been determined,
drill them according to the sizes indicated, with a
bit and brace. The first three holes at the left
are to hold bits; the next two, chisel and gouge,
and the others are for screw-drivers. These
latter four, after the holes are drilled, are made
open clear to the edge of the rack by sawing out
a section from the front. This makes it pos-
sible to take the tools out without lifting them en-
tirely out of the rack. From the right-hand end
mark off a distance of twelve inches. Then,
from the end to this line, cut two grooves as
shown in the drawiilg. The forward one is
rounded out with a gouge to hold a pencil while
the back one is square and flat, cut with a chisel,
to hold either a twelve-inch scale or a folded two-
foot rule. In the front edge of this piece, about
six inches from the right-hand end is driven a
nail to hold the claw hammer.
The fifty-six-inch length which was not ripped
in two is fitted at right angles to the back of this
rack, lapping over the edge and flush with the
top. It is nailed in position and two supporting
brackets like Fig. 2 are fitted under each end of
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1 8 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
the rack for strength. When this is all fastened
together, the whole rack is set up on top of the
back pieces of the workbench and held in place
by two cleats, three inches by eight which are
screwed to both the back piece of the bench and
the back piece of the rack.
Underneath the holes for the bits there should
be two nails to hold the brace. The jack plane,
block plane, and spoke shave may stand on the
bench underneath the rack, and screws or nails
at the end of the bench will hold rip saw, cross-
cut saw, and dust brush.
Next in usefulness is the bench block shown in
Fig. 3. For this cut one piece of wood six inches
by eleven, and two pieces, six inches by two
inches. All these pieces must have the grain
running in the longest direction. When these
are trued up, fit them together as shown, and
fasten with one-and-three-quarter-inch wood
screws. After completing this the corners are
cut off. The block fits over the front edge of the
bench near the right-hand end and forms a brace
when one wants to hold a piece of wood steady
for sawing.
Next comes the bench stop, Fig. 4. When one
is planing a wide, flat board the vise is useless.
So holes are drilled in pairs in the top of the
WORK-BENCH ACCESSORIES 19
bench itself, and these bench stops are shpped in
to form a buffer. A Httle piece of wood one by
one by two is used, the grain of course running
the long way. For half of the distance the stop
remains square, while the other inch is rounded
with a chisel to fit into the hole, which should be
slightly more than an inch deep. Two of these
stops will be needed.
Every workbench needs a nail box. A good
one may be made from two pieces three inches
wide by fourteen inches long, which form the
sides, two ends three inches by three, and a bot-
tom piece five inches by fourteen. The side pieces
are nailed to the end pieces, fitting over them, and
the bottom fits over all. This makes the inside
measurements three inches by twelve. Of course
it is desirable to keep the different sizes of nails
separate, so this is divided into as many compart-
ments as are desired by partitions. These can be
made from any old piece of wood about a half
inch thick. They measure three by three inches
and may be spaced however you like, except the
one which is shown in Fig. 5. This is to be
placed in the middle and forms a handle as well
as a partition. Just as convenient, though not
quite as necessary, is a miter box. It consists of
two side pieces five inches by twelve, and one bot-
20 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
torn piece four inches by twelve. The side pieces
fit down over the edges of the bottom piece and
are nailed fast. There are no ends. When this
much is done, take a forty-five degree triangle,
and mark across the two top edges one perpen-
dicular line, and one forty-five degree line in each
direction, making them so that they do not over-
lap. Then saw straight down from these lines
to the bottom piece. A miter box will prove
itself a great convenience in sawing the corners
of molding or anything which requires a fitted
corner. The piece to be sawed is held firmly in
the box and the saw guided through the slots.
When a boy has made the bench and all these
accessories, and has some tools, he will be
equipped for big practical work.
HOW TO MAKE A TURNING LATHE
MOST boys have a speaking acquaintance
with a turning lathe. Some boys know
how to use one with good results. But to use
one and own it too — that is a joy which few boys
experience.
After all, though, a lathe is not such a for-
midable machine, and if a boy is quick at catch-
ing an idea and working it out he can make one
for himself.
Most of the material can be procured from
some machine shop at practically no cost, and the
parts that have to be bought outright will cost
very little.
The foundation may be an old sewing-machine
stand and the lathe is run, just as a sewing ma-
chine is, by foot power. In almost any junk shop
or second hand shop you will find an old out-of-
date sewing machine for sale. New machines
can be bought so cheaply nowadays that a sec-
ond hand one costs next to nothing.
When you have procured this you must take it
to pieces. The wooden top part is fastened to the
21
22 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
iron frame by screws from underneath. Take
these out, and the top and drawer at the sides
may be Hfted right off. Then take out the screw
at the right hand side of the machine part and
slip off the upper belt wheel. This upper belt
wheel, the belt, the lower belt wheel, and the iron
framework of the machine are all that will be
needed for the lathe, and the rest you may discard,
or put away in the ''handy" pile for some future
construction. The lower belt wheel is of course
fastened to the frame, so that does not need to be
disturbed.
Next get a piece of hickory or some other hard
wood twelve inches wide, three feet long and one-
and-one-half inches thick. Cut a long, narrow
slot in this from one end as is shown in Fig. i.
Then fasten this piece to the top of the iron frame
with the same screws that fastened the top of the
machine on before. The solid end of the wood
should project two inches beyond the right-hand
end of the frame where the belt is, and the
slotted end will of course extend somewhat be-
yond the frame at the left. This is what is called
the "bed" of the lathe. Now bore the two holes
which the belt goes through.
When this is done, measure the hole in the
center of the upper belt wheel, where the shaft
MAKING A TURNING LATHE 23
went through. It will probably be one half inch
in diameter. Then get a piece of gas pipe twelve
inches long and of the same diameter, outside
measurement, as the hole, so that the wheel may
be put on it with a "drive fit." This simply
means that the wheel fits so tightly that it must
be driven on and, once on, it will not turn. It
should be driven on far enough so that when the
groove for the belt is in line with the groove on
the lower belt wheel, the pipe will project the half
inch beyond the solid end of the bed.
Now you must make two supports, or "head
blocks" for this. Cut from two-inch-thick hard
wood two pieces like Fig. 2. The square hole is
for the gas pipe to go through and must have a
bearing fitted into it. Of course it would be
easier to cut just a round hole slightly larger than
the pipe for it to turn in, but this bearing, with
much turning, would wear loose. So a one-inch
square hole is cut; the gas pipe, with a piece of
newspaper wrapped around it, is held in the exact
center of the hole, the head block standing up-
right; and melted Babbitt metal is poured down
through the hole in the top of the block. To do
this pieces of cardboard should be fitted over the
pipe and tacked to either side of the block, so
that the space inside is like a mold. The metal
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Diagrams of a Turning Lathe.
[24]
MAKING A TURNING LATHE 25
which remains in the top hole forms a key to hold
it. The Babbitt metal may be bought at a hard-
ware store in small bars and melted in a kettle in
the fire. It hardens quickly and when hard, the
pipe may be removed, the paper taken off and you
will have a permanent, durable bearing.
Slip one of these head blocks on the pipe from
each end, with an iron washer on each side of
each block. The right hand block should be
''flush" with the end of the bed, the pipe project-
ing a half inch beyond it. The other block
should be spaced two inches back from the ends
of the slot in the bed. The blocks are fastened
to the bed with long wood screws which come up
through the bed from underneath, and they are
held in position on the gas pipe by making ''prick
punch" holes through the pipe close to the wash-
ers and using either "cotter pins" or bent wire
through these. Then the end of the pipe, which
projects over the slot should be filed so that it has
four points, or teeth. This completes the head
of the lathe, and is much the most complicated
part.
The rest of the lathe consists of a "tail block"
and a tool rest, both of which are adjustable to
any position desired. Fig. 3 shows the tail block.
Like the head blocks, it is made of two-inch thick
26 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
stock. The bottom of it is cut to slide back and
forth in the slot. Just underneath it, on the
under side of the bed, is a piece of wood four
inches by two inches and one-inch thick which is
fastened to the tail block by a screw through the
center and which clamps the block in position at
any required distance. At the point marked 'T"
a "lag" screw, which is simply a wood screw with
a sharp point and a large flat head, is screwed
through the block. The piece of wood to be
turned is held in place by this lag screw and the
filed teeth on the gas pipe.
The pieces of the tool rest are shown in Fig. 4
and Fig. 5. Fig. 6 shows it as it looks when it
is put together in place on the bed of the lathe.
Fig. 4 shows the tool rest itself — that is, the
part upon which the chisel or gouge is steadied
for cutting. This is fastened upright upon the
end of Fig. 5, which is a standard which extends
across the bed and is clamped in place, as the tail
block is, to a block underneath, except that, in-
stead of being screwed, it is fastened with a three-
eighth inch bolt and nut.
Fig. 7 shows the whole lathe "assembled," or
put together with each part marked according to
its figure numbers so that you can see just how it
goes.
MAKING A TURNING LATHE 27
F,a 7
All the material it has required has been :
One old sewing machine.
About fifty cents' worth of hard wood.
One three-inch lag screw.
28 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
One three-eighths-inch bolt five inches long,
with nut and washer.
Four iron washers for gas pipe.
One foot of gas pipe.
Seven three-inch wood screws.
A few cents' worth of Babbitt metal.
The result is a good practical lathe on which
anything up to eight inches in diameter and
twenty-one inches long may be turned; and I
think you'll all agree that it was well worth the
making.
HOW TO MAKE A TOY TRAIN
CLEAR the track there! Push the crib
over in the corner. Pick up those blocks.
Shove the doll's house and blackboard out of the
way. Hurry and put the old red candy lantern
out of sight. We don't want any danger sig-
nals here. The Twentieth Century Limited —
the Fast Special of the play room — is coming.
The construction of the Twentieth Century
Limited follows close upon the making of zvJiit-
tling tools. A little train it is, just an engine,
coal car, baggage car, and one passenger coach,
but of course there may be any number of addi-
tional cars coupled on, provided the train proves
popular and the nursery traffic is heavy. The
train is made from cigar boxes. The floor of the
engine is made from a flat piece of wood, two
inches wide by four and one-half inches long, cut
perfectly true and then pointed at one end (Fig.
i). Then the cab is made. Fig. 2 shows the
front of it — a piece of wood measuring two inches
by one and three-quarters, and having two little
holes three-eighths of an inch scjuare cut for win-
29
30 BOYS' xMAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
dows. The side pieces are an inch and a quarter
by two inches, cut in the shape of Fig. 3, and each
has one Httle window. The roof is an oblong
piece two inches by one and a half. When the
whole cab has been nailed together, it is placed in
position on the floor of the engine, about a quar-
ter of an inch from the rear end, and nailed there.
For the boiler you can use one of mother's bast-
ing thread spools. Chip off the ends, making
them even with the part where the thread was
wound, and then nail it to the floor from under-
neath. A spot on the upper side of the boiler is
smoothed off, and a tiny spool is glued on for a
smoke stack. The forward wheels are made
from circular pieces an inch in diameter, and the
"drivers'' from pieces an inch and a half in di-
ameter. Then there are bearings for the wheels,
like Fig. 4, those for the smaller wheels being an
inch long, and those for the larger wheels three-
quarters of an inch in length. They are glued
to each side of the floor piece and the axles, made
from lollypop sticks, are slipped through. These
are cut three inches long, which allows plenty of
room for the wheels to turn, and for a little nail
to be put through like a cotter pin, to hold them
on.
The coal car floor measures two inches square,
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Diagrams of a Toy Train.
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Diagrams of a Toy Train.
[32]
HOW TO MAKE A TOY TRAIN ^^
the sides two inches by one, and the ends one and
three-quarters by one. These are nailed together
to form a httle box, and four wheels and bearings
like the forward ones on the engine are made.
The couplings are made from little round brass
hooks, the one on the forward end of each car be-
ing horizontal, and the one in the rear end per-
pendicular.
The baggage car is a triumph of whittling, for
it has a door that will slide back and forth just
like a real one. The bottom and top of the car
are oblong pieces of wood tw^o inches by four and
a half, and the end pieces measure two by two
and a quarter inches. The sides are made like
Fig"- 5, with an opening an inch and a quarter
square for a doorway. On the inside of the side
pieces, extending to within a half inch of each
end, and starting about an eighth of an inch from
the top a groove is cut, the depth of the groove
being about a quarter of an inch. The door it-
self is one and thirteen-sixteenths inches high by
two inches wide, and has two very small, flat-
headed, wood screws, screwed in near the top at
an angle, so that the heads rest in this groove,
and slide back and forth. Above the door is a
strip of wood an eighth of an inch wide, and out-
side of this another strip a quarter of an inch
34 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
wide, both of which are nailed in position, and
keep the door from shpping out of the groove.
Another screw forms a handle for the door, and
when the car is put together it is not at all ap-
parent how the door slides. Fig. 6 is a section
cut through the side, above the doorway, and
shows the groove and how the strips are put on.
For the passenger car the floor is made first —
like Fig. 7 — the car floor itself measuring two
inches by four and one-half, with a projection one
inch by five-eighths at each end for a platform.
The sides of the car (Fig. 8), are two inches by
four and a half, with three holes one inch wide by
three-quarters high for Pullman windows. The
ends of the car are like Fig. 9. They are slipped
over the platforms, the space one and one quar-
ter inch by a half inch forming a doorway and
the lower ends extending below the platform to
form the side of the steps. The end of the plat-
form is a piece measuring one inch by two inches,
and is nailed in position so that the lower edge
of it is even with the lower edge of the side pieces,
the remainder of it extending above the platform
for a railing. There are two steps on each side
at each end — eight steps in all. The bottom ones
measure a quarter of an inch wide and three-
quarters of an inch long, while the upper ones are
HOW TO MAKE A TOY TRAIN 35
the same width, but only a half inch long, for they
have to fit in between the ends of the car, and the
ends of the platform. The roof of the car is like
Fig. 10 — a piece two inches by six and one-half
inches with rounded ends, extending well over
the platforms. Both the passenger and baggage
cars have wheels exactly hke the coal car.
When these are done the train is coupled, and
away she speeds. ''Clear the track there! The
Twentieth Century Limited is just pulling into
Chicago, and she has made the trip from New
York in eighteen hours."
OUT-DOOR TOYS
THIS set of whittled out-door toys ought to
please almost any boy. With kite and fish
line time coming soon and the wind blowing a
gale for your weather vane, and the other fellows
out ready to play *'cat'' — well, let's see how to
make all these toys.
The kite stick in Fig. i is made from a piece of
pine wood eight inches long, and, roughly cut
out, about three-quarters of an inch square.
This is smoothed down to five-eighths of an inch,
and then you start in to make it round. First
the four corners of the square are trimmed off
evenly for the full length, making it an eight-
sided stick, and then these corners are again
trimmed, until finally the stick is round enough to
be sandpapered smooth. It is better to draw a
five-eighth inch circle on each end of the stick be-
fore you trim it down, so that you can see whether
you are making a true round. When the line for
the bevel is marked around one-eighth of an inch
from the ends, the bevel is cut, the notch is cut
37
38 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
around the middle, and the stick is ready to tie
your kite string to.
For the reel in Fig. 2 and also the weather vane
in Fig. 7, it is better to select a piece of wood
which is already "dressed'' — that is, finished
smooth to the thickness you require, because it is
hard to make a broad surface true with a jack
knife. Cigar boxes are three-sixteenths of an
inch thick, and a piece of one will make a good,
stout reel. In making all of these toys, the pat-
tern should be drawn on the wood as far as pos-
sible with pencil, scale, and straight edge, before
any cutting is done. The reel should be cut first
into an oblong, two and a quarter inches by four
and a quarter, then the corners are rounded so
that the line will not catch on them, and lastly
the "recessed edge'' where the line is to be wound
is made, cutting from each end of the opening to-
ward the center, and gradually working it down
even.
There are not many boys who don't know how
to play "cat." It requires a good deal of skill,
and if you don't break anybody's window or put
out anybody's eye, it's a lot of fun. It requires
two boys to play this game. You lay the cat
down flat — as in Fig. 3 — and, with the stick (Fig.
4), held by the octagonal end, hit the cat sharply
•
(a) whittled weather vane, (b) kite stick:
FISH LINE. (C) "cat" STICK
'CAT
REEL FOR
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Diagrams of a Kite Stick. Reel, "Cat," "Cat" Stick, and
Weather Vane.
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Diagrams of a Weather Vane.
[40]
OUT-DOOR TOYS 41
on one end, and as it flies up bat it forward. It
is up to the other fellow to catch it, and if he does,
it counts you out, and gives him a turn. But if
he doesn't catch it, you measure with the stick,
end over end from where you stand to where the
cat has fallen, and that counts so many points for
you. Then the other fellow has another chance
to count you out by throwing the cat from where
it fell and trying to hit your stick. If it falls
short or goes beyond, you again measure the dis-
tance with your stick, and that too counts in your
favor.
The cat is made from a piece of pine four
inches long and an inch square. The center sec-
tion is marked off and then a line is drawn ex-
actly across the middle of each end — not diago-
nally, but straight up and down. The sides are
slanted down to this line, like a wedge, and then
the other two sides are slanted to the middle point
at each end. The wood for the stick is twelve
inches long and five-eighths of an inch square, and
is worked down just as the kite stick was, except
that the handle is left eight sided, while the rest
is made round. The octagon and circle which
are shown with parallel diagonal lines on them
are ''cross sections" and show what the stick
42 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
would look like if it were cut straight through at
that point.
The weather vane is the hardest toy to make.
Fig. 5 shows three views of one piece of the wheel
— a top view, a front view, and an end view, —
just as though you looked at the piece in front and
then squarely at the top, and then turned it
around and looked at the end. A piece of wood
three-quarters of an inch square by five inches
long is used for this, and two of them are made
and fitted together — making a wheel with four
arms. It is better to cut the section for the joint
first, for the wood is less apt to split before it has
been weakened by any other cutting. This is a
similar cutting to that in the reel, except that the
grain lies in the opposite direction, and the cut-
ting should be done from the center of the open-
ing toward each end. Then opposite corners are
slanted down so that the ends of the arms are
thin and aslant to catch the wind, as the end view
shows. The dotted lines are the edges which are
not visible. After the two pieces are fitted to-
gether a two-inch nail is driven through both
and into the end of Fig. 6, which is not beveled.
It should be turned around until it works loosely
and will turn easily in the wind.
The stick in Fig. 6 is seven and three-eighths
OUT-DOOR TOYS 43
inches long by a half inch square. After the
section three-quarters of an inch long, where the
nail hole is shown, and which remains square, is
marked off, the rest of the stick is made eight
sided. Then the eight-inch bevel shown on the
end is cut, and, for a distance of two and a half
inches from that end, a V-shaped groove is cut
on two opposite sides. This end of the stick is to
slide into the opening in the end of the wing
(Fig. 7). Another two-inch nail joins this piece
to the upright stick (Fig. 8) and forms a pivot
for it to swing around on. The wing is a flat
piece six and a half inches long by two and a
half wide. The curves are laid out with a com-
pass (R. in the measurements denotes radius)
and the 2>^ ''-opening is made as shown in one
end. The little cross-section shows how it is cut
to a pointed edge which slides into the groove in
Fig. 6.
The upright stick is nine inches long by three-
quarters of an inch square, and is worked down
similarly to the other sticks, except that the end
which is round is tapered from three-quarters to
one-half inch. The ''break" in the drawing sim-
ply means that it is longer than is actually shown.
When the windmill is fitted together and put out
where it will catch the wind, a boy will find that
it was well worth making.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN DESK
SET
A DESK set is a great addition to a boy's
desk. If he has a pen tray he knows where
his pencils and pens are to be found without
rummaging through a tangled mess of top
strings and marble bags and nails. If he puts
away on the bill file that / Owe You that Billy
Smith gave him for a pair of rabbits, it won't be
all crumpled up and beyond identification when
Billy gets his next month's allowance. When
you come to think of it, a desk set has a great
many advantages — and then, there's the fun of
making it.
The desk set which is shown in the picture
comprises five pieces — an ink well stand, a bill
file, a pen tray, an envelope opener, and a book
rack. It is all, with the exception of the envelope
opener, made of one-eighth-inch basswood.
For the ink well stand (Fig. i) use a piece of
wood, four inches square. The two-and-a-half-
inch opening — which is the size of the average
glass ink well — should be cut first, before the
45
46 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
corners are weakened by cutting out the half-
inch rounds. After this is done, cut the corners,
and last, the eight-inch bevel. Fig. 2 shows
one of the feet of the ink well. It is shown, by
dotted lines, in position in Fig. i. The four feet
are glued to the bottom of Fig. i and the inside
corners project inside the opening, making four
half-inch squares on which the ink well may rest.
The feet are made from pieces of wood one and
seven-eighths inches square, cut in the shape
shown, and ornamented with a little design in
"chip'' carving. This chip carving is ordinarily
done with what is called a skew chisel — that is,
a chisel which is not square at the end, but which
has one point an eighth of an inch or more longer
than the other, so that when it is put into the
wood, one end of the cut will be deep while the
other is barely cut out at all. However, it may
be done with a jack knife, if you are very careful.
In the "motif" shown in Fig. 2, the points where
the three lines from adjoining corners meet are
where the deepest part of the cuts should be.
This is done with the knife held point down and
the thumb on the end of the handle. Then, with
the knife still in the same position in the hand,
you chip out the wood with a sliding cut toward
you, slanting it down to the depth of the cut. It
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(a) file, (b) ink well, (c) pen tray
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Diagrams of an Ink Well Stand, a Bill File and a Pen Tray.
[47]
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Diagrams of a Pen Tray, an Envelope Opener and a Book
Rack.
[48]
YOUR OWN DESK SET 49
is a little difficult to describe this without seeing
it done, but if you look at the patterns and the
photographs, and experiment a little on a piece
of wood, you will find it easy.
Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 show the bill file. Fig. 3 is
made from a three and a quarter-inch square,
cut similarly to the foot of the ink well, and with
the same motif carved on each corner. It
should be remembered in cutting the recessed
edges that the sides running zvitJi the grain must
be cut front each end, and the cross-cut sides cut
fozvard each end. Fig. 4 is cut like Fig. i, ex-
cept that there is no opening in it. It is then
glued to the top of Fig. 3, and a three-inch nail
is driven up through the center.
Fig. 5 shows one side of the pen tray. It is
made from a piece of wood nine inches long at the
bottom, tapered to seven and three-eighths inches
at the top, and one and seven-eighth inches wide.
The motif for the carving is made by putting to-
gether two of the squares shown in Fig. 2 and
then repeating this again and again. It makes a
very pretty and effective decoration. Fig. 6 is
one of the end pieces, and is decorated in the
same way. Fig. 7 is a cross-section showing the
construction of the pen tray. For this you
should first make two oblongs, seven and three-
50 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
eighth inches long, one of them being one and
three-eighths, and the other, one and one-half
inches wide. These are fastened together at
right angles, the long one topping over the
shorter, with tiny nails. Then a piece measur-
ing two inches by one and one-quarter is nailed
to each end, to hold the tray firm. Next, the top
edge all around is beveled — the side edges, so
that the sides (Fig. 5) may be fitted on straight
up and down, and the ends, at such an angle that
they will not interfere in putting on the end pieces
(Fig. 6). Then the sides and ends are glued in
position, and the tray is finished.
For the envelope opener in Fig. 8, a piece of
gum wood five and a half inches long by a half
inch square is used. For two and a half inches
from the end it is reduced to an octagonal
shape. Then the notches are cut, and the end
of the handle — four sides only, not the entire
eight — beveled. Then the blade is cut, curv-
ing down from the handle, and reducing the
blade to an even thickness of an eighth of an
inch. When this is quite even the end is pointed,
and the entire outside edge of the blade is beveled
down from both sides, to a cutting edge.
The base of the book rack (Figs. 9 and 10), is
made from two pieces of wood measuring four
YOUR OWN DESK SET 51
inches by nine, which are cut as shown, to fit and
sHde within each other. It measures thirteen
inches, closed, and sixteen inches, open. A good
way to fasten the pieces together so that they
wall slide easily and yet be firm, is with strips
of thin sheet brass, which can be bought very
cheaply. A strip three-quarters of an inch wide
is passed around the rack at D with both pieces
in position, lapped and fastened to D. Another
similar piece is passed around at C and fastened
to C Then the ends (Fig. 11) are made. This
requires two pieces four inches wide by four and
a half long, with the grain running up and down.
The top is made a little prettier by a semi-circular
curve and a reverse quarter circle at each side of
it. The deep carving is a trifle more elaborate
than on the other things, and must be done care-
fully where the cuts all meet at the bottom.
After measuring and finding the position of the
points "a'' and ''b" you should use these as cen-
ters from which to make the curves which deter-
mine the outline of your design. The cutting is
done exactly as you did before. When these are
finished they should be fastened on top of the
base, at either end, with little brass hinges on the
inside. A strip of wood four inches long by
three-quarters of an inch wide is placed at the
52 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
lower edge of the end pieces, on the outside, for
added strength, and the screws fastening the
hinges will hold it in place.
This completes the actual making of the desk
set. It may be sandpapered, or it may be var-
nished, or, if you are fortunate enough to have a
mission desk, it may be stained to match. In any
case it is worth having.
WILD ANIMALS YOU CAN MAKE
WITH a circus folder or animal book for a
copy, a few old cigar boxes, and a jack
knife, a very lively and life-like menagerie can
be made.
Cut the cigar boxes apart, and sandpaper the
pieces very smooth. Then take a pencil and
sketch as well as you can the animals in the pic-
tures— at least the bodies of them, for the legs
are to be attached afterward, so that they can
stand and "do things."
The cutting must be done very, very carefully,
for the outlines make so many different angles
with the grain of the wood. It is not in the least
like straight cutting with the grain, or even
straight cross-cutting, and the wood has an irri-
tating habit of splitting off some vital part of
the animal's anatomy.
It is impossible to make the tails out of wood,
so they are made of heavy string, glued in place.
For the monkey, you can make a tail of wire, so
that he can swing by it.
Make the legs of the animals separately and
53
hnnoQ
Hfppo's /LCr^ Hr/0/(PO\5 /^o^
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Patterns of Hippo and Tiger.
[54]
WHITTLED WILD ANIMALS
Giraffe, Camel
(5trV/<»* l-^f-
Patterns of Monkey and Giraffe.
I55]
Benr's Le
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Lion's FoTC LCi
Leans Hind Ceo,
3ea.r'S f^oot.
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Lion's /^oi;.
Patterns of Bear and Lion.
[56]
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WHITTLED WILD ANIMALS
Bear, Lion, "Darwin"
WILD ANIMALS YOU CAN MAKE 57
fasten them on to the bodies with tiny nails.
Place the two fore legs or two hind legs in posi-
tion on either side of the body piece, and drive
through them a short wire nail, a very little
longer than is necessary to go through the three
thicknesses of wood. Then rest the head of the
nail on a piece of iron, and hammer the point,
forming a little rivet to pivot the legs. The feet
must also be made separately, and fastened on in
the same way, so that, whatever position the legs
are in, the feet will remain level.
HOW TO MAKE A SET OF MISSION
FURNITURE
AVERY attractive set of furniture suitable
for a doll's nursery, may be whittled from
pieces of old cigar boxes. It consists of four
pieces — a "Craftsman" bed, a chair, a table, and
a chest of drawers.
For the head of the bed take a piece of wood
four inches square, and, placing it with the grain
of the wood running up and down, mark it out
like Fig. I. As a general rule, the grain of the
wood should lie with the longest dimension, but
in all the upright pieces of this set it must run up
and down. Outline first the "recessed edge,"
which forms the legs of the bed, scoring it lightly
with the point of the knife. Then cutting a little
bit out at a time, and working from the center
toward each end, bring it down to the line. The
two openings, an eighth of an inch by a half inch,
for the joints, must be cut with the point of the
knife — the ends first, then the sides, and lastly
the wood is chipped out, and the opening is
evened up. The foot of the bed is identical with
59
6o BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
the head except that is three inches high instead
of four.
Next come the side pieces — two pieces seven
inches long and one inch wide, cut Hke Fig. 2.
The half-inch ends slide through the openings in
the head and foot of the bed, and fasten with lit-
tle wedge-shaped pegs like Fig. 5. Inside each
of these side pieces, and "flush" with the bottom
edge, glue a strip cut like Fig. 3, and fit in five
little slats three and three-eighths inches long by
a half inch wide (Fig. 4). Then, to c-omplete it
and make it look as much like a Craftsman bed as
possible, paste on the head a panel of light brown
wrapping paper, on which are four little conven-
tional kittens, painted in Van Dyke brown.
The top of the table (Fig. 6) is a piece four
inches square. The end pieces (Fig. 7) are cut
similarly to the head and foot of the bed, with the
same recessed edge and the same openings, vary-
ing only in the outside dimensions. The sides
too (Fig. 8), are similar to the sides of the bed,
except that they are of course, much shorter.
Slip them through the openings in the end pieces,
fasten them with four little pegs, glue the top on,
and the table is done.
The chair is built on the same general lines as
the table and bed. The chair back (Fig. 9) meas-
DOLLS CHAIU AND TABLE, WHITTLED IN MISSION STYLE
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Diagrams of a Chair and a Chest of Drawers.
[62]
A SET OF MISSION FURNITURE 63
ures two and a quarter inches wide by three and
one-half inches high, while the front upright
piece is exactly similar but only an inch and one-
half high — just high enough for dolly to swing
her feet comfortably. When these and the side
pieces (Fig. 10) are done and put together, glue
on a piece one and five-eighths inches by two and
a quarter (Fig. 11) for the seat.
The construction of the chest of drawers is a
little more elaborate. Make first two side pieces
like Fig 12. They measure two and a quarter
inches wide by three and one-half high, and have
a recessed edge a quarter of an inch deep at the
bottom to form feet, and three openings in each
side for the partitions between the drawers.
There are one deep drawer at the top, and two
shallower ones below it. Make three pieces like
Fig. 13, four inches long by one and three-quar-
ters wide. The little square and piece for the
joint are not exactly in the middle, and the longer
space goes toward the back, but is intended to
leave a little open space of a half inch at the back.
Next make three pieces for the fronts of the
drawers (Fig. 14), two of them five-eighths of
an inch wide, and one measuring an inch and a
quarter. In each of these make two holes for the
knobs. The drawers themselves (Fig. 15) are
64 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
made of light weight pasteboard, 'ihe bottom
dimensions remain the same of course for all —
two and three-quarter inches by two — but the
depths of the sides must be one and one-quarter
inches for the wider, and five-eighths of an inch
for the narrower ones. When these are cut out,
fold them on the dotted lines to form a box, with
the sides which lap over each other at the front.
The knobs of the drawers are made of large
beads. Put a piece of string through each bead,
and then push the two ends of string through the
hole in the front of the drawer, and through a
corresponding hole in the pasteboard drawer
itself. Then tie the two ends of string from the
right-hand knob to the two pieces from the left-
hand knob in a firm square knot, accomplishing
the triple purpose of holding the knobs in posi-
tion, fastening the front piece on to the drawer,
and holding the drawer in shape. An oblong
piece of wood two and a quarter inches by three
and a quarter (Fig. i6) makes the top, and an-
other four inches by three and a quarter forms
the back.
TOYS THAT HIDE IN THE WOOD BOX
THE farm barn with its loft hung with cob-
webs and the great hay mows, and the farm
wagons to scramble out and in is surely a delight
to the country boy; but if one corner of the barn
has a big pile of clean, smooth blocks and sticks
of kindling wood, the charm of the place will be
redoubled.
A glance, only, at a heap of ordinary, every-
day kindling wood will suggest all sorts of plays
to the resourceful boy. With the aid of a few
simple tools, a hammer, a light saw, and some
wire nails, the pieces of wood may be changed
into crude, but realistic toys that will give the
little folks quite as much pleasure as any to be
found in a toy shop.
Look, first, at the building possibilities of a
pile of kindling wood. The long, straight sticks
may be balanced on the barn floor to represent
a regiment of soldiers. With penciled faces,
and soldier caps they make very fine little men;
and if there are two opposing armies, a most ex-
citing sham battle may be carried on with horse
65
66 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
chestnuts and green apples for ammunition, and
a prize for the general whose kindling-wood
forces stand up the longest.
A miniature pig pen may be built by piling up
kindling-wood sticks in log-cabin fashion. The
sticks selected for the pen should be, as nearly
as possible, of the same length. Two sticks
should be laid parallel. These are then con-
nected by laying other sticks across their ends.
The boy should continue building in this man-
ner until the pig pen is of a good height. A
very fine, fat pig may be made of a small cucum-
ber, having twigs stuck into his body for legs,
one of the vine tendrils for a curly tail and melon
seeds for ears.
A log house is constructed by building a foun-
dation similar to the pig pen. The roof is
formed by laying a row of sticks, quite close to-
gether, across the top. A family of little clothes
pin dolls may live most comfortably in a kindling
wood house.
In front of the house there should be a strong,
rail fence to protect the inmates from any In-
dians who may come in while the builder is away.
To build a Virginia rail fence, two sticks of
kindling wood should be crossed in the shape of
a letter V. A third stick is added at a similar
TOYS IN THE WOOD BOX 6j
angle with the second stick. This form of build-
ing is continued until the fence is of the required
length. Going back to the first stick, a second
layer of sticks is started on top of the first layer ;
and the fence may be built as high as one wishes
by the addition of a third and a fourth layer.
There are ever so many playthings that can
be built from the wood found in the wood pile.
A boy who is clever with his jack knife will be
able to make a set of ten pins from sticks of
kindling wood by carving little round heads at
the ends of the sticks. Very straight bits of
wood which will balance well should be chosen
for the ten pins. He can also carve quaint
wooden dolls for the little sister.
The accompanying illustration shows a toy
barnyard that was made by a group of children.
Their only tools were a couple of hammers, a toy
saw, some nails and a jack knife. The only ma-
terials used were found in the wood pile in the
wood-shed.
The barnyard fence is constructed from lath.
Long strips are used for the bars of the fence.
The fence posts are bits of lath, also, carved in
six-inch lengths, pointed at the top with a knife,
and nailed to the longer strips. Bits of leather
are tacked in place for the gate hinges. Bits of
68 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
kindling wood split into narrow sections are
nailed together for the pig pen and the cow shed.
Some old wooden boxes are used for the farm
wagon and the wheelbarrow, the curved edges of
the wheelbarrow being made with a jack knife.
The box cover is used as wheel material, two
circles being cut out of the soft wood with a jack
knife and fastened to the body of the wagon with
dowel sticks. Another box is mounted on a
standard of lath and forms a very realistic pigeon
house. The chicken coops are little wood
squares nailed together at an angle of 90° with
bits of lath fastened across the front. With the
addition of a rude barn made from scraps of
wood, a dog house — which is only a small edition
of the barn — and a cattle shed, the farmyard
is complete — a crude but unfailing source of
amusement for many rainy days.
One of the simplest toys to make of wood bas-
ket scraps is a little play sled. For this you will
need three oblong pieces of wood — one of them
(Fig. i) measuring four inches wide by seven
inches long, and the other two (Fig. 2) measur-
ing two and a half inches wide by nine and one-
half inches long. Some pieces of an old packing
box about a half inch thick will do very nicely for
these. Mark the outlines first with a pencil; then
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Diagrams of a Cart.
[70]
TOYS IN THE WOOD BOX 71
cut them out with the saw, and ''true them up''
with a knife — that is, take off the httle rough-
nesses that the saw has left, and make the edges
perfectly straight and square. Next the two long
side pieces which you have made must be shaped.
Measure off on the lower edge (with the piece
standing in position as though it were on the
sled), two inches from the front end. Connect
this by a line with the upper front corner, and
cut it. Then round off the lower end of this cut
so that it curves into the bottom. Now make a
nail hole near the front end of each side piece for
a string to go through, nail the side pieces to the
other oblong which you made for the top, and the
little sled is done.
Another very simple toy to make of this ma-
terial is a little chicken coop. This is made of
one square piece of wood and another piece which
is almost square. The first piece (Fig. 3) meas-
ures seven inches each way, and the other one
(Fig. 4) measures seven inches in one direction,
and in the other direction seven inches less the
thickness of the wood. This is because one piece
laps over the end of the other, and the end of the
first piece forms part of the other side of the
coop. When these pieces are cut and made per-
fectly square and true, lap the longer piece over
^2 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
the end of the shorter so that it will he just even
with the surface, and nail in position. For the
slats (Fig. 5) cut some strips an inch wide and
thinner than the sides of the coop. Lath is good
if you have it. Two of these strips are ten inches
long, two are seven inches, and two are four
inches. The longest ones are nailed across the
open sides of the coop, one on each side, an inch
above the bottom. The middle-sized ones are
nailed two inches above these, and the shortest
ones two inches higher. Then the ends of these
strips are sawed off almost even with the coop.
A little table may be made from one block of
wood six inches square, and four cylinders three
and a half inches long. For the table top (Fig.
6) select a piece of wood about an inch thick.
Make this true, and smooth the top with sand-
paper. Then mark on the under side a square
which is four inches on a side, and exactly an
inch away from each side of the table top. At
the corner of this inside square are to be made the
holes for the table legs. For these holes you will
have to use a bit and brace, and make the holes
one inch in diameter and a half inch deep. If
you haven't a bit and brace, you can, with a little
more trouble, whittle out the holes. For the
table legs (Fig. 7) take four pieces of wood one
TOYS IN THE WOOD BOX jz
inch square and three and one-half inches long.
By whittling- off each long corner edge you can
make these from square prisms into octagonal, or
eight-sided prisms. Then keep shaving off these
corner-edges until the prisms are so many-sided
that they are practically round. Smooth them
with sandpaper, and glue in place in the holes in
the under side of the table top.
A strong little cart may be made almost as
easily as these other wood toys. Cut from
some pieces of wood three quarters of an inch
thick, two side pieces (Fig. 8) measuring three
inches by ten inches, two end pieces (Fig.
9) three inches by five inches, and one bottom
piece (Fig. lo) five inches by eleven and a half
inches. In the center of one of the end pieces
make a nail hole for the string to go through.
Nail the sides and ends together, lapping the end
pieces over the ends of the side pieces. Then
nail the bottom piece on. For the shafts of the
wheels (Fig. ii) take two pieces of wood nine
inches long and one inch square. For a space
of two inches in from each end make the shafts
cylindrical just as you did the table legs, leaving
the center portion, which is five inches long,
square. Nail these shafts to the bottom of the
cart at points two and a half inches from each
74 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
end. Next cut from i inch-thick wood four
wheels (Fig. 12), three and a half inches in diam-
eter. These may be cut out roughly with a saw,
and worked down to the marked line with the
knife. Then cut in the center of each of these
wheels a hole about one and one-sixteenth inches
in diameter — enough larger than the shaft so that
the wheels will turn easily. Slip the wheels in
place, and drive into the shaft from opposite sides,
outside of each wheel, two small finishing nails.
These are to keep the wheels in place, and must
be driven in carefully so as not to split the shafts.
These are all attractive wood basket toys to
make, and besides this, each one of them may be
adapted, by enlarging, for some real use. The
sled, with the addition of iron strips for run-
ners, may be really used; or by using two sleds
and an extra board fastened to both so that
they will turn, it may be made into a ''bob-sled"
or "double." The chicken coop, enlarged, will
comfortably accommodate the mother hen and
her brood of chicks which are the beginning of
every boy's first poultry venture. The little table
may grow into a flower stand, and the cart, made
larger and stronger, will rival any shop-bought
express wagon for durability and comfort.
THE WONDERFUL DODO BIRD
AVERY long, long time ago, in the far off
country of Switzerland, which is the land
of high mountains and goats and tourists, there
was a wonderful bird. Nobody ever saw him
near by, for he lived in a forest of alpenstocks,
and he had the longest kind of legs, so that no
matter how fast the tourists pulled up the alpen-
stocks, or how hard they tried to catch him, he al-
ways got away. The only way any one could see
him was to watch the mountain tops, for when the
weather was pleasant, he would climb up and
stand there outlined clearly against the sky, his
long legs making him taller than anything around
him, and he would bob up and down — first his
head and then his tail, and then his head again —
and wave his plume and call, "Do-do, do-do/'
The peasants made little dodo birds whittled
out of wood, and sold them to the tourists, and
because a real dodo bird was only hatched once
in a blue moon, and there are no more blue
moons, why, the ones the peasants made are the
75
76 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
only dodo birds left. And this is how they made
them.
The fomidation of the bird's body (Fig. i) is
a chunky piece of wood an inch and a half square
by three inches long. On each end of this is
marked a circle — an inch and a half in diameter,
which makes it just touch each edge. Then by
cutting from circle to circle, as nearly straight as
possible, the wood is made into a three-inch-high
cylinder. Next one whole end is rounded off like
the large end of an egg. The next steps in mak-
ing the dodo bird are not quite as simple. A
straight line is drawn all the way around the
body, from end to end, w^hich divides it into two
equal parts. At the end of the line which repre-
sents the middle of the bird's back is measured
off a space a quarter of an inch on either side.
This makes a half-inch space which is the tip of
his tail, and from these points lines are drawn on
the flat end surface, to complete the four-sided
figure shown in the end view of Fig. i, which is
the whole end of his tail. It tapers from a half
inch at the top to about a quarter inch at the bot-
tom, and when it is all finished, the bottom is
slanted in a trifle. Next the bottom part is whit-
tled up in a curve which meets the lower end of
the tail, and the rest of the body is whittled in
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Diagrams of a Dodo Bird,
y^ BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
the shape shown in the side view of Fig. i.
This part can't be done by hnes because it is a
gradual curve all over. When this is done two
flat slanting surfaces are whittled off for the
sides of the tail:
Now you are ready to make the grooves for
the head and tail feathers to go in. Part of the
lower center line has been whittled off and will
have to be replaced. Then, measuring three-
sixteenths of an inch on each side of this line,
make parallel lines which shall extend around the
lower part of the body from the end of the tail to
a point on the front end just a quarter of an inch
below the top. A space a half inch wide is left
in the middle of the bottom for the legs to fasten
on, and the rest is to be made into the grooves
as shown on the pattern. The easiest way to do
this is to cut as far in as possible, on the parallel
lines which you have drawn, with a small saw.
Then chip the wood out with a small chisel, and,
with the chisel held bevel side down, round out
the bottoms of the grooves. If you haven't such
a chisel though, you can manage with a knife.
When the body is done, the rest is easier. Fig.
2 shows the head, made from a piece of wood two
and a half inches long by one and one-eighth wide
and a quarter inch thick. The outline is marked
THE WONDERFUL DODO BIRD 79
and whittled into shape, and the beak is slanted
down to a point. One quarter of an inch from
the end of the neck a hole is made for pivoting,
the eyes are marked in with a pencil, and three
rows of marks are made across the neck with a
little pattern marking wheel. These may also be
made around the body and will add to the beauty
of the dodo bird. His plume is made of a soft,
downy chicken feather, stuck into a hole in the
top of his head and glued in place.
The tail feather (Fig. 3) is shaped like the
feathered end of an arrow. The ''feathered"
part is one inch wide by two and a half long, and
another inch in length forms the pivoting part.
This end is a quarter inch wide and five-six-
teenths thick, and the ''feathers" are cut in from
each side with a slanting cut as shown in the
drawing. The bottom is left perfectly level, but
the top is slanted down, with three flat cuts, to
a sharp edge at the end. A hole is made from
side to side, a quarter of an inch back from the
small end, for pivoting. Two small nails driven
through the body, with the head and tail feathers
in position, form the pivots. They must be
driven carefully so as not to split the wood, and
must be placed so that the head and tail feathers
will work up and down very freely.
8o BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
The legs (Fig. 4) are pieces of wood three
and a half inches long, a half inch wide, and a
quarter of an inch thick. They are first whittled
in an elliptical shape. Then the lower part, for a
space of two and a quarter inches is tapered back
from the front to give an appearance of stand-
ing very straight. At the upper end, for a quar-
ter of an inch from the top, half of the wood is
cut away, and the remaining part is fitted into
holes cut in the body, three quarters of an inch
apart, and glued.
The standard for the dodo (Fig. 5) is made
like a small wooden vise. It is a flat piece of
wood three and a half inches long by two inches
wide and three quarters of an inch thick. One
end is beveled slightly, and one end of the top is
curved down slightly.
In the remaining flat surface on the top two
holes are whittled out into which the dodo's feet
are to be glued. Then a space two inches long
and one inch wide is cut out to form the jaws of
the vise. To tighten the vise there must be some
sort of a screw through the lower jaw. A
wooden thumb screw is not easy to get, so the
best plan is to get a bolt about three eighths of an
inch in diameter. Then cut a hole almost aa
THE DODO BIRD
THE WONDERFUL DODO BIRD 8i
large in your wood, and screw the bolt in, forcing
it to cut its own ''thread" in the soft wood.
Fig. 6 is the weight which makes the dodo
work. It is a piece of wood two and a quarter
inches high by an inch and seven-eighths square.
This is made into a cylinder and rounded at one
end precisely as you did with the body. Then
a circle is marked around it a quarter of an inch
back from the flat end, and this end is slightly
rounded off. It may be decorated or not, as you
choose.
Now you are ready to make the dodo bird
work. Take two pieces of string — stout, but not
too heavy — about twelve inches long. Fasten an
end of one of them — with a tiny wedge and some
glue — into the end of the dodo's neck, and the
other into the small end of the tail. Then bring
the two pieces together and knot them about an
inch from the other end. Fasten these two ends
into the top of the weight just as you did the
single ends.
Now fasten the vise securely on a shelf some-
where, and swing the weight to and fro like the
pendulum of a clock. The dodo will bob first his
head and then his tail and then his head again,
and you can almost hear him calling ''Do-do"
^2 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOiME THINGS
way off on the mountain there. He's a source
of never-ending fun, boys, and besides playing
with him yourself, you can just watch and see
how few grown-ups can go by him and resist
swinging the pendulum.
A FLEET OF TOY BOATS
WHO remembers the mill pond down at the
farm, clean, and high, with trees all about
— a capital place for sailing boats? It is so small
that, directly a toy ship is started on its voyage,
you can run around the other side and meet her.
There is the trout brook, too, down in the
woods, where everything is cool and still. There
isn't a sound as you sit on the bank save when a
mouse comes rustling along, pushing his way
through the leaves with his queer little pointed
nose, or a hedgehog plods by, blind and deaf,
never seeing you at all.
If you should launch a toy boat in the brook,
where do you suppose it would sail to ? You will
follow it a little way. Sometimes it will get
caught in the ferns, or it may lie for a minute,
stranded, on a rock, or it will overturn as it
shoots the rapids. You start it on again with
the long pole you cut from the willow tree, but
presently the boat will sail away, out of a child's
sight, down the brook.
Perhaps it will pick up a crew of little brownie
83
84 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
sailor men. Perhaps it will stop somewhere to
load a cargo of butterfly's gowns. You will lose
sight of it though. That is what always hap-
pens to one's toy ships.
A boy can make himself a whole fleet of toy
boats to play with in the mill pond and the trout
brook. If one of them does go sailing away to
Fairyland — why, what does it matter with all the
rest of the fleet just tugging away at their ropes,
waiting to be launched?
The little boats are the nicest of all, because
one may have so many of them. Out in the
woods there are some of last year's walnuts lying
on the ground. Split one in half with a jack-
knife, and take out all the meat, leaving the in-
side smooth and white. Glue a scrap of paper
to a toothpick, and fasten this little mast to the
inside of the half walnut shell with a drop of
glue. There is a real fairy craft, fit for a dragon
fly to ride in. Just watch it toss and float and
sail away on the make-believe waves.
There are so many eggs in the barn, you can
surely have one. Do you know how to blow an
egg? Make a tiny hole with a pin in each end,
then, by blowing steadily into one end, the con-
tents of the Qgg may be emptied out of the other.
You will be able to cut the tgg shell lengthwise,
A FLEET OF TOY BOATS 85
now, with your jack-knife. If you have some
paper strips you can bind the edges of the tgg
boat to make it a trifle stronger. Glue two paper
seats across the top and add a pair of oars made
of toothpicks. A tiny paper doll will enjoy a
ride in the egg-shell boat.
Out in the barn where you found the egg,
there is a whole big bin full of corn cobs. Such
light, clean playthings they are ! They will make
a stout little raft to float about in the mill pond.
You will need to select eight corn cobs, all of the
same size and length. Lay them side by side on
the barn floor. Then split up an old berry bas-
ket, and cut two or more of the thin strips of
wood from the side exactly as long as the raft is
to be wide, lay these strips of wood across the
corn cobs and nail them in place with tacks. The
corn-cob raft is done. It is so light that it can be
loaded with quite a cargo, two or three rubber
dolls who do not mind the water, or a toy horse,
or a rubber pig. Then, if the current is right, it
will float way across the mill pond, and the toys
can land on the other side.
Corks make a fine raft, too, and such a light
one! A cork raft will almost never sink. You
must collect corks for quite a while before you
have enough for the raft. They will need to be
86 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
of just the same width and length. Glue five or
six corks together by their ends to form a little
cork log. Make a number of these logs, and
then fasten them together as you fastened the
corn-cob raft. Another way of making the cork
raft is to run the corks on a bit of fine wire and
the logs may all be wired together in the same
way.
A very large, flat cork, such as mother puts in
her pickle jars, will make a fine little sail boat.
All that it needs is a toothpick mast and a white
cambric or paper sail glued on.
A paper row boat is very easy to make.
Choose an oblong of heavy paper that will not
soak with the water quickly. Fold a cocked
soldier's hat. Every boy knows how to do that.
Hold the cocked hat in the middle of each side
and pull it out into a square. Bend back the two
open sides to form another cocked hat, but
smaller than the first one. Pull this out, also,
into a square. Then, if you pull hard on the two
closed corners, the paper will open into a fine lit-
tle row boat. You can fold so many of these
paper boats that a new one may be launched as
fast as the old one sinks.
A boy who is clever with his jack-knife will be
able to make a stout little sail boat from a piece
A FLEET OF TOY BOATS 87
of an old tgg crate, or the side of a cigar box.
The wood must be close grained and light — that
is the first essential. Cut the boat, pointed at
one end, and rub it smooth with a piece of sand-
paper. Glue a meat skewer to the center for the
mast, and hoist a little sail. A hole may be bored
in the end of the sail boat, and a long string tied
in will allow you to run along the edge of the
brook and keep this little craft from sailing
away.
There are other boats which will want to join
this toyland fleet. Peanut shells may have very
tiny paper sails pinned to the ends. A race be-
tween two rival peanut boats will be great fun.
A cigar box boat may have squares cut from
the sides with a knife for oar locks; with meat
skewer oars, it will make a very creditable scow,
flat-bottomed, and perfectly safe for any doll to
go clamming in.
Clam shells may have paper sails fastened on
with glue, and any kind of flat shell loves to go
sailing away by itself on the water.
A strong square of birch bark may be folded
and cut rounding at the ends to resemble a canoe.
The ends are then sewed with a needle threaded
with strands of sweet grass or stout cotton, mak-
ing a tiny Indian craft. If you wish the canoe
88 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
to be perfectly water tight, it can be lined with
waxed paper.
There will be fun for all summer long for the
boy who makes and sails his own fleet of toy
boats.
WHITTLED TOY SAIL BOAT
HOW TO MAKE A PLAY TENT
HAVING a tent out in the garden or on the
lawn during the summer vacation makes
each long, happy day twice as long, and just twice
as happy. A boy can play that he is an Indian,
or a first settler, or a cave dweller, or even an old
story book king if he has even the crudest kind
of a roof over his head and some sort of a play
shelter beneath which he can live and play, and
dream all manner of delightful things.
Of course the nicest tent of all is one from a
real tent factory made of canvas and having
staples and pegs to fasten it to the ground, but
such a tent costs ever so much money, and not
every mother and father can afford to buy it.
One family of children went without fireworks
on Fourth of July that they might save the money
which they would have, otherwise, burned up and
with it they bought themselves a tent which lasted
much longer than the smoke and noise of the fire-
works would have.
There is, though, a very fine tent indeed, and
one that will give a group of boys quite as much
89
90 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
pleasure as any manufactured one. This is the
home-made tent. It is the tent that seems to
really belong to you because it is a sort of a make-
shift and you make it with your own hands.
There are ever so many ways of making your
own tent, all of them simple and quite easy for
one to follow.
One very strong and serviceable tent has a
foundation of straight, young birch trees or sap-
lings cut in the early spring and used for tent
poles. Holes should be dug, and the poles set
in the ground a quarter their length that no sum-
mer wind storm can uproot them. Around each
pole, the earth is then pounded down, and the tops
of the poles, six or eight in number, should be
lashed together with cord. A couple of old army
blankets may be stitched together to make a cov-
ering for this tent. A hole is cut in the center
and the covering is slipped over the supports and
tied to the base of each pole. There will be
enough extra blanket to make a flap in the front
of the tent to act as a door. If there is a sum-
mer shower when the children are playing in this
blanket tent they may pull the flap tight shut, and
just snuggle inside, listening to the raindrops
that do not soak through the blanket covering
one bit.
HOW TO MAKE A PLAY TENT 91
A second home-made tent has a foundation of
bean poles or clothes poles for supports. These
are sunk in the ground and fastened together at
the top as were the saplings used for the blanket
tent. The covering, however, is of brown denim.
Twelve yards will make a very good-sized tent.
The lengths are cut to fit the poles used as tent
supports; they are pointed at the top, and
stitched together. Tape sewed at the top, cen-
ter, and base of each seam, on the inside, may be
tied around the poles and fasten the covering to
the props. This tent may be decorated in such a
way that it will make a real patch of color on the
lawn or in the back yard, and will have the ap-
pearance of an Indian's wigwam. Red and
green, or yellow denim is used for the decora-
tions. Small conventionalized trees, moons,
stars, leaves, or any preferred designs are cut
from the colored cloth and stitched to the brown
covering. Another way of decorating the denim
tent is to paint pictures on it with stencil colors,
using stencil patterns of Indians, animals, or
flowers. These colors are "fast" and the rain
will not wash them off as is apt to happen in the
case of designs applied with colored cloth.
A flower tent is a new sort of playhouse and is
quite delightful in sunshiny weather. When it
92 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
rains you can watch your tent grow from the
house windows. It will be wise to select a fence
corner, where a row of castor beans will sprout
in a night almost to help form the back of the
tent. Between these castor plants, there may be
some quick-growing vine planted; mock orange,
morning glory, or moon flower. As the seeds
sprout and the vines begin to grow, they should
be twined upon strings which extend up the
fence and across the top between the two sides of
the fence, forming the tent roof. Before sum-
mer is over, this roof will be a thick one as the
vines increase their leaves and the leaves them-
selves grow larger and more lavish of their
shade. After a while they will hang over the
front of the tent helping to form a third side,
and when the tent bursts into blossom the chil-
dren who live inside it will feel almost as if they
were in fairyland.
These tents all take time to make, but there are
other home-made tents that can spring up in a
day in the garden. A very little boy can set up
grandfather's big green umbrella for a tent and
have a pleasant time sitting under it. The han-
dle can be buried a little way in the ground and
there will be plenty of room beneath its delightful
green shade for a boy and a picture book, or a lit-
HOW TO MAKE A PLAY TENT 93
tie girl and her doll. To make this umbrella tent
still more snug and sheltering, grandmother's
shawl can be draped around it, or a rug may be
pinned to the edges to form the back and walls.
Two boys who live next door to each other and
are the friendliest of neighbors can make a tent
that they can share. The village carpenter will
furnish four stout pine posts a little taller than the
fence between the boys' homes is high. Two of
these posts are set up on one side of the fence
about eight feet from the fence itself, and two on
the other side in just the same position. The
ticking cover of an old feather bed may be cut
down to the right size, and nailed to the posts for
a roof. A couple of old sails may be cut into
straight curtains for the sides of the tent, with
strips of lath in the hem so that they can be rolled
up in pleasant weather. The tent is very cozy
when it is finished, and before the summer is
over nearly every boy in town will have been up
to visit these boys in their little two-room tent.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN TOPS
SOME toys don't know how to play. They
just stand still and wait for a child to carry
them around the garden or drag them by their
strings across the nursery floor. They have no
proper play spirit, these lazy toys, but that isn't
the case with a top. Given a fair chance, just a
fine, long string and a smooth sidewalk — why, a
top will play with a child all day long. It will
twirl and whirl, never stopping to rest for long,
and singing all the time its quaint little humming
song to keep tune and time with its spinning.
You can buy a top for a penny at the toy shop,
but it is just a plain, ordinary sort of wooden top
exactly like all the other tops. How would you
like to make your own tops? It will be the
easiest task in the world to do this, and a whole
lot of fun, too. The materials for home-made
tops grow out of doors and are lying close at hand
at home, in the wood-shed, or in the cellar.
Sharpen your jack-knife, and you may start
out top hunting, at once.
A beet makes a queer little top that will spin
95
96 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
gayly for a day, and if it breaks on the sidewalk
or curbing, why you may pull up another top
from the beet patch in the garden. The picture
shows you a beet top that looks like a very own
cousin to a wooden top because it is just the same
shape, and the same size. There should be a
pointed peg whittled from a scrap of soft kindling
wood and stuck in the pointed end of the beet.
The beet top is then wound with a string that has
a small button mold or a little china button on
the end and when you throw it as you do an ordi-
nary wooden peg top, it will spin finely. A small
turnip will make a top, too, if it has a whittled
peg, and a little radish makes a fine top, save that
it is too small to be wound up and should have a
bit of toothpick stuck in opposite the peg to twirl
it by.
The woods as well as the garden are full of
tops. Let us go out top gathering under the nut
trees some fine, frosty morning, taking the heroic
little jack-knife, too, to help finish the tops. Fat
acorns make splendid tops. A bit of twig should
be whittled down to the right size and stuck in the
flat end of the acorn by which to spin it. Every
acorn has a fine point upon which to spin and a
half dozen of these gay little acorn tops may be
set spinning at once by a group of children in a
WHITTLED CLOWN TOP
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN TOPS 97
top contest to see which will keep twirhng longest.
Horse chestnuts may be used for tops, too, if a
child selects the very round, flat kind of nut.
Horse chestnuts gathered when they first fall
from the tree are soft and easily bored with an
awl or darning needle, or the smallest blade of a
jack-knife. A hole should be made exactly in the
center of the nut and a perfectly straight piece
of twig inserted, pointed at one end and extend-
ing a half inch above the horse chestnut at the
top to hold it by. Another way to make a horse
chestnut top is to cut the nut in half, crosswise,
and insert halves of toothpicks in each section,
making two tops instead of one.
When the shut-in days come in the winter and
it is too late to pick your tops out in the garden
or gather them in the woods, it will be ever so
much fun to see how many tops you can make of
the materials you are able to find at home. The
wood that is used in a cigar box is soft and easily
whittled, and just one box will furnish material
for countless tops. The queer little circus clown
in the picture spins on the tips of his toes if a
top string is wound about the long peg protrud-
ing from the top of his head. He is not one bit
difficult to make. The outline of a clown in a
picture book is drawn on a sheet of tracing paper
98 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
with a soft pencil and then transferred to a piece
of the soft wood. If a boy has a jig saw it will
be very easy to cut the little outlined clown in a
jiffy, but it can be done in almost as short a time
with a sharp jack-knife. When the clown is cut,
his features are drawn in with charcoal or a soft
pencil. If you spin him hard enough, he will rise
right up off the ground once in a while and then
settle down again and go on spinning. If a
child has a book of brownies he can make a
brownie top in the same way that the clown top
was made. The brownie will spin on the tips of
his little pointed toes.
The top in the picture that has a series of
circles of different sizes will be ever so easy to
make. The circles, each a half inch smaller than
the one which is to be above it, are drawn on soft
wood, and are then cut out with a jackknife. A
hole is cut in the center of each circle and they
are fitted on a piece of wooden meat skewer, the
point of the meat skewer forming the spinning
end of the top. With a box of water color
paints the circular disks of the tops are then
painted in gay contrasting colors and the effect
will be charming when the little top begins to
spin.
Button molds make tops. The big wooden
(a) beet top. (b) top made of graduated disks
(c) button mold top
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN TOPS 99
molds that the tailor uses for coats are best to
make into tops. The hole in the center must be
enlarged to admit of a sharpened end of a meat
skewer being inserted. These button mold tops
may be painted, too, and a splendid game can be
played with them on the nursery table. Two
stakes may be set up — the stakes from a parlor
croquet set will do nicely — at the opposite ends of
the table. The boys playing the game then
choose colors and spin their button mold tops,
whipping them with tiny whips made of meat
skewers and colored twine, and trying to see
whose top will make the distance between stakes
first at the one spinning.
THE FARM THE SCISSORS BUILT
IT will be almost as fine as a real farm when it
is finished and ever so much easier to make,
because one will not need any boards, or tools, or
huge nails to use in putting it together.
What do you suppose the barn is made of?
Why, just a big piece of heavy wrapping paper
that some one has brought to the house, and then
has dropped on the hall table to be thrown away
because it does not seem to be of any use now its
wrapping days are over.
First, one should cut the heavy wrapping paper
into a large square. Then fold the square into
sixteen small squares like the folding indicated in
the diagram. Some of the lines in the diagram
are dotted. Those show how the square is folded
to make the little squares. Some of the lines are
solid, heavy lines. Those are the lines to be cut.
Make these cuts very carefully with scissors.
There will be three cuts, each one square long
and one square apart on two opposite sides of the
paper. The two middle squares which are
marked "a'' in the diagram should be superim-
lOI
I02 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
posed. That is a very, very long word, is it not?
It means something very simple, though. These
two squares are laid, one on top of the other, and
1 I
Folding for Barn.
are glued into place. Next, the squares marked
**b" are brought together and their edges are
glued. Then — one end of the wrapping paper
barn is finished. Glue the squares at the other
THE FARM THE SCISSORS BUILT 103
end of the barn in the same way, and cut a wide
barn door. The door is made by cutting on a
vertical crease on one side of the house, making
two other cuts at right angles with the first one,
and folding back the two sides of the door at the
opening. If you want a window where you can
toss hay up into the barn loft, it may be cut just
above the door. A boy who has seen the inside
of a real barn will be able to cut some strips of the
heavy paper, and paste them together, fastening
them to the back wall of the barn to show where
the cow and the horse stalls are.
Some more strips of paper may be pasted to-
gether to form a barnyard fence. The barn may
stand on the nursery table with the fence all
around it, or an old suit box of mother's will
make a very fine barnyard indeed. The sides of
the box should be ruled with a pencil to look like
the bars in a real barnyard fence. Then you can
cut the bars with a jack-knife, or some sharp
pointed scissors. When you have finished the
suit-box barnyard, the barn may stand in one cor-
ner of it.
Now you are ready to cut some animals to live
in the barn.
The pictures in your animal picture books will
make splendid patterns for the barnyard animals.
I04 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
Trace the animals with some tissue paper and
then transfer these patterns to some stiff paper.
When you have cut carefully on the traced out-
line, you may paste the animal's feet to cardboard
Finished Barn.
standards to make them stand up. There may be
cows, and horses, and a donkey, and a whole flock
of barnyard fowls. Then you may color the
barn creatures with your water color paints or
with colored pencils.
You can make a fine, large farm wagon, also,
to stand beside the barn. To make the wagon,
you should fold a small square of paper as you
folded the large one for the barn. Instead of
using the whole square, though, as you did for
the barn, you must cut off a strip of four squares.
THE FARM THE SCISSORS BUILT 105
Then make the short cuts as you did for the barn
in the ends of the oblong piece of paper. Lay the
three square laps which you have made by the
cutting together, and paste them — one on top of
the other. Cut out some wheels and fasten them
to the cart. Glue on some cardboard or sticks
for shafts, and the farm wagon is done.
If you want a wheelbarrow in the barnyard,
you may cut one of mother's old spool boxes in
half. The edges where you made the cut should
be curved. A wheel made of an empty spool, or
a cardboard disk may be fastened to one end with
a pin, and some cardboard legs may be glued to
the wheelbarrow.
When the paper farm is complete, you must
harness the donkey to the wagon, and set him to
work. Cut out some of the gay pictures of fruit
and vegetables that fill the seed catalogues, and
load the wagon.
Fill the wheelbarrow, too. Cut out some pa-
per overall boys to visit the farm and spend the
summer. There is no end to the plays that the
paper farm will suggest to you.
MORE BOX PLAYS
ONE of father's empty note paper boxes, a
starch box, a box that held spools of thread
once — one, or all of these will furnish delightful
play material for an afternoon in the house. A
box has not finished its usefulness when its con-
tents are gone. It is strong and tough often
still, and ready for all kinds of fun.
Some cardboard boxes, large and small, will
make the toy farm establishment shown in the
picture. A box that once was filled with writing
paper serves for the barn. The box stands on
one side, leaving the entire front open that toy
animals can be put in and taken out with greater
ease than if there were a door. The long edge
of the box cover is cut to fit the box, inserted and
glued in place to form the front of the stalls which
hold the toy animals. Shorter lengths of the
cover edge are fitted in between the back of the
box and this front partition to separate the stalls
and are also glued in place. When these are in,
a door can be cut. The stalls must be furnished
107
io8 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
with little grain boxes for the play horses to eat
from; and this is the way to make them.
Measure with a school ruler and cut out a four-
inch square of heavy wrapping paper. Lay the
paper on a table in front of you and fold, first,
the front edge up to the back, and then the front
and back edges down to meet the center fold.
Now turn the paper around, repeating the fold-
ing until there are sixteen squares. Cut off a
row of four squares, leaving an oblong piece of
paper that contains twelve squares. Make two
cuts in the opposite narrow ends of the paper, one
square long and one square apart. Fold up these
squares and paste them, one on top of the other,
forming a little oblong box. One of these boxes
pasted to the back of each stall looks just like a
grain trough, and may be filled with oats, if a
country boy is making the farm, for the little
horse to eat.
Some of the wrapping paper that remains after
the grain boxes are finished makes the roof of the
barn. Cut a strip as wide as the barn is deep and
once and a half as long. Fold it once through
the center and, at the ends, fold down flaps by
means of which the roof can be glued to the top
of the box forming a hay loft. When spring
comes you can cut grass blades with a pair of
BOX PLAYS 109
gardener's shears, dry them hi the sun, and fill
the loft of this little hox barn with real, play hay.
A box in which the apothecary packs his pow-
ders makes the little farm cart in the picture, and
another one the wheelbarrow. No cutting is
necessary for the cart, but some of the cardboard
left in the cover of the note paper box can be
used for wheels. A fifty-cent bit is the right size
for the wheels. Lay one on the cardboard, and
draw carefully around it with a pencil, cutting
four of these wheels with a pair of sharp scissors.
Brass paper fasteners will make strong hubs for
the little wheels. Pierce a hole through both
wheel and box before inserting the fastener,
though, to help the wheel to turn. . A strip of the
box cover glued to the front of the cart serves for
the handle.
The wheelbarrow is just a little more difficult
to make than these other toys, but not too great
a task for a child with clever fingers. A section
that is about one third of the entire length is
measured and cut off the second small box, and
thrown away. It is the remaining two-thirds of
the box that is to make the wheelbarrow. The
front, open edges of the box are now curved like
the sides of a real wheelbarrow. Two narrow
strips of the cover, or two small sticks are glued
no BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
to the front of the wheelbarrow for handles, and
two shorter lengths of cardboard or two very
tiny sticks form the legs. Another cardboard
circle cut the same size as those used for the cart
wheels is inserted by means of a knife cut in the
back of the barrow and helps it to trundle along.
The box-built cart and wheelbarrow will be
found most useful in the spring. They can be
loaded with little green apples, tiny brown peb-
bles that look like toy potatoes, corn kernels, or
peas. They will be strong enough to last a whole
season and help to carry fodder to the horse who
lives in the box barn.
There is still more box fun. Ask mother for
an empty cardboard starch box, the strong kind
covered with blue paper, and see what a fine little
toy garage it will make. Almost every child has
a toy automobile given him for Christmas, but it
is so apt to go steering away with its own gaso-
line, and losing itself somewhere in the house if
a child has no special place in which to keep it.
Take the cover of the box and turn the box
itself bottom side up. On one side, right in the
center, draw a big square. The lower part of
the square should come on the very outside edge
of the box because this square is to be the garage
door. The door should be made in two parts, so
BOX PLAYS III
as to open very wide and admit the automobile
when it comes steaming along in a great hurry.
To make this double door, draw a perpendicular
line that divides the square into two parts.
Then, with a pair of sharp scissors cut right up
this line to the top of the square. Next, cut
along the top line to the right and left of the mid-
dle line. Folding back the two halves that have
just been cut, out toward the outside of the box,
makes two little doors and opens the front of the
garage. Square windows can be cut in the sides
of the box, as many as one wishes.
A number of empty thread boxes will make a
splendid train of cars, strong enough to drag a
whole family of china dolls or a load of live stock
up and down the piazza or along the garden path.
Cardboard circles cut from the covers of the
thread boxes and of the same size as those used
for the wheels of the toy cart make the car
wheels. They are fastened on, either in similar
fashion to the cart wheels by means of paper fas-
teners, or a bone collar button may be pushed
through cart and wheel, helping the wheels to
revolve more easily. One of the thread boxes
has the cover glued on, and to the top is glued
also one large wooden spool for the engine's
smoke stack, and a block for the engineer's cab.
112 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
These little box cars are coupled together by
short lengths of braided cord. Holes are
punched in the ends of the cars with an awl and
the cord is pushed through and knotted at each
end to hold it in place. , A long piece of cord is
fastened to the engine and is used to draw the
cars by.
There is no end to the entertainment and fun
to be had from a pile of empty boxes. Just get
to work at a few of them your next free after-
noon and find out how much they are able to help
you in your play.
(a) the ark
(b) cardboard animals who live in the ark
A RECIPE FOR A NOAH'S ARK
IT isn't a very difficult recipe to follow. All
the stirring you need to do will be when you
mix up some flour and a little water to make the
paste. That is the first ingredient. Next in the
recipe comes a pair of sharp scissors and a pencil.
After that you must find some sheets of heavy
paper, and the old animal picture books that you
thought you could not enjoy any longer because
the leaves were coming apart and the pictures
were torn. Spread out all these things on the
nursery table, and you will be ready to begin the
Noah's Ark.
The Ark itself is to be a big, strong envelope
for holding all the wild animals, and this is how
you must make it. One of the sheets of heavy
paper should be folded in half. The folded edge
forms the bottom of the envelope. Beginning
with this folded edge, the outline of the Ark is
drawn on the paper with your pencil. It is a
simple outline to draw — a big boat with curved
ends, and a sort of house resting on the top.
Then, holding the folded edge tightly so that the
113
114 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
paper will not slip, cut out the Ark. The ends of
the Ark should be bound or glued, but the top is
left open that the animals may be put in.
Windows and a door are cut in the Ark for the
animals will want to look out as they sail away
on their wonderful voyage, and the Ark may be
painted bright red with green trimmings.
Next come the animals.
The pictures of the animals may be mounted on
one of the remaining sheets of heavy paper, so
they will be stiff enough to stand up alone. That
is one way of making enough animals to fill the
Ark, but there is another way that will take a lit-
tle longer, but will prove ever so much more fun.
The loose pictures from the book of animals
should be fastened to the table with thumb tacks,
or tacked to a drawing board. A square of white
tissue paper is then laid over each, and the out-
line of the animal's body is traced wath a soft
pencil. When the tracing is finished, the tissue
paper is carefully lifted off and laid with the plain
side up on some stiff white cardboard. The out-
line is then retraced with the same soft pencil
leaving a pattern of the animal on the cardboard.
The animal is then cut out, and painted with the
nursery water colors.
You will need to be very clever, indeed, to paint
A RECIPE FOR A NOAH'S ARK 115
the animals so that they will look as if they were
just fresh from the jungle. There must be a
tawny lion colored with brown that has a great
deal of yellow ocher mixed with it. The pan-
ther must be orange with big yellow spots, and
large green eyes. The tiger's eyes must have
yellow mixed with the green paint and his coat is
yellow with orange stripes. The bear is brown
and the kangaroo is tan.
There should be two of each kind of animal.
Now how shall you make them stand up and walk
like real, live animals? Some very tiny bits of
wood may be glued to their feet. That is one
way of making the animals stand. Another way
is to make a narrow ring of the same cardboard
from which the animals were cut. The animals'
feet are then glued to this ring, and they will
really stand.
A boy will be able to make more animals than
he can count, — leopards, monkeys, zebras, ele-
phants, as many as he can find patterns for in his
toy picture books. And it will prove such fun
to draw them and paint them that he will be kept
busy for many rainy afternoons.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN UNIFORM
EVERY boy needs to be a soldier, once in a
while. There are so many brave deeds to
be done and so many cowardly things to fight,
and So much dark to walk through courageously,
and so many strange dogs and cats, and shy little
girls to protect with all the gallantry of those old,
old knights who lived in the story-book days. A
soldier boy is never late for school, and he never,
never forgets to do an errand. He goes to bed
alone every evening at eight, even if the stairway
is dark, and there is no light in the upstairs hall
to chase away the ghosts. He never lies, and he
is always cheerful. He knows that being brave
and gallant and true is just as much a part of a
soldier's duty as marching, and drumming, and
saluting Old Glory.
It isn't easy to be a soldier though in a plain,
everyday suit of clothes, made of homespun per-
haps, and patched, and dingy brown in color. A
real soldier suit cut and fitted the right size for a
boy costs more money than there is in the boy's
tin bank. What is the boy going to do if he
117
ii8 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
wants more than anything else to be a soldier and
he hasn't enough money to buy himself a suit?
Any boy will be able to make the soldier trap-
pings shown in the picture, and when he puts on
the cap, and the shield, pins the epaulets to his
shoulders and sticks the play sword in his belt, he
will be ready for the life of a little soldier. He
can work or play cheerfully, and when it comes
Saturday, or Washington's Birthday, he will be
the envy of all the other boys as he leads them in
a fine parade, dressed in his gay, home-made sol-
dier things.
Suppose we make the soldier's cap first. The
diagram marked Fig. i, 2, 3, and 4, shows just
how to do the construction. A bright red cap
will be fine for the soldier, or a blue one just the
color of the blue field in the flag. There is a
kind of tough, half-heavy paper called book cover
paper. One can order it from a stationer's shop
or a printing factory at a cent or two a sheet.
Some sheets of this will make the boy's own cap
and enough for all the other soldiers in the regi-
ment. A piece of paper that measures fourteen
by twenty inches is the foundation for the soldier
cap. Fold the two narrower edges together until
they touch, and crease the paper through the cen-
ter as shown in Fig. i. Then with the paper still
YOUR OWN UNIFORM 119
folded, make a second fold as shown by the line in
Fig. 2. This line forms a guide line for the next
two folds which make the point of the cap. Lay
the papers, open, as in Fig. i, on a table with the
folded edge at the back; fold each half of the
back edge down along the line made by the last
folding. Then fold up and crease the lower open
edges forming the rim of the cap. The rim
should be glued down to make the cap firm and
strong. A feather can be made by fringing
strips of red or blue crepe paper and twisting
them around a narrow strip of cardboard which is
glued inside the rim of the cap. A turkey's
feather will do just as well, or a bunch of hen's
feathers, or a cockade made of red, white, and
blue ribbons to decorate the cap.
A boy can find a splendid shield pattern in the
back of the dictionary. Copy it, and enlarge it
until it is the right size to cover a boy's shirt
bosom. Then draw it on heavy white cardboard,
and cut it out. A good size for the shield will be
eight by ten inches. When it is cut it can be
decorated with stars and stripes with colored
pencils or paints as shown in the picture. The
stripes are drawn carefully with a ruler and
filled in with color; one red and one white.
The blue ground above the stripes is dotted with
I20 BOYS' MAKE- AT-HOME THINGS
stars cut from gilt paper and pasted on. Two
holes are punched in the sides of the shield, and
a bit of cord is strung in by means of which the
shield may be hung around a boy's neck. It will
make his heart beat faster and give him a whole
lot of courage every time he looks down at its
brave stars and stripes.
Now for the sword which looks like a for-
midable weapon in the picture, but is really not
dangerous at all. Every boy knows how to roll
a narrow piece of paper, and make a lamp
lighter. The sword that is part of this home-
made soldier suit is made in just the same way.
Cut some narrow strips of the book cover paper
and join them with glue until there is a long
strip. Roll this strip of paper tightly, in lamp
lighter fashion, until it is fifteen inches long.
Then press it flat between heavy weights. Roll
a second strip of paper for a length of six inches
and glue it to the broad end of the sword as a
handle. These swords are so delightfully easy to
make that a boy will want to roll a dozen after he
has made his first one, and he can arm himself
with as many paper poniards as an Indian chief
has arrows in his quiver.
The soldier's epaulets are just five by two inch
strips of the book cover paper cut to fit a boy's
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YOUR OWN UNIFORM 121
shoulders and decorated with fringed red and
blue tissue paper. They can be pinned to the
soldier's coat shoulders with safety pins and will
make an ordinary play suit quite as military in
appearance as any uniform.
When the boy soldier is dressed in this home-
made uniform, which will be even more effective
than any which is for sale in a toy shop, he will
be ready for any adventure in addition to the
brave prowess of everyday life. Perhaps he and
the other boys will want to take one of mother's
old blankets and two or three clothes poles for a
tent, and tramp as far as the woods for a day of
real scouting. Every soldier has a knapsack for
carrying provisions and this play soldier will
need one, too. A large, flat box makes a fine
knapsack. Inside can be packed a bundle of
sandwiches, two or three apples, a doughnut or
two, and a piece of pie or a big slice of pound
cake. Wlien the box is packed, tie it securely
with a length of cord, and have one end of the
cord for a strap by means of which the knapsack
is hung across the soldier's back. Roll a square
of old blanket and tie to the top of the box just
as a real soldier fastens his blanket to his knap-
sack, and the make-believe soldier in cap, epau-
lets, and shield can draw his sword and start off
in search of any adventure.
JOINTED TOY ANIMALS. HOW
TO MAKE THEM
THEY will really do ''stunts/' these toys in the
picture. The grasshopper will hop if you
stand him up on a table and give him a chance.
The turtle will crawl along much faster than an
ordinary, live turtle. The crocodile will follow
you so fast that you will surely be eaten by him
unless you hurry. What fun it is going to be to
play with these live toys, but first a child must
make them, and as many more as he likes.
Clear a low table on which to work and find
some heavy cardboard or thick water color paper
from which to construct the animals. Bring also,
a pair of strong scissors, a sheet of tracing paper,
a soft lead pencil and the box of water color
paints you found in your stocking last Christmas.
These are all the tools and material necessary for
making a barnful of animals. Ask mother for
some porcelain collar buttons to fasten the
animals' legs to the bodies. The laundry man
brings so many of these useless studs every week
and a crop of them will be fine for jointing the
123
124 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOiME THINGS
animals. If one cannot find enough collar but-
tons, a box of tiny brass paper fasteners will
serve very well instead.
Every boy knows how to draw a few animals,
at least free hand. If he is clever enough to be
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able to do this just by watching the horses out in
the street, or the tiger in the Zoo, or the kitten
who sits in front of the nursery fire, washing her
face, so much the better. He will not need any
patterns. The child who finds difficulty in
sketching an animal free hand will have to trace
his patterns from a book, or a toy animal. Often
JOINTED TOY ANIMALS 125
one of the nursery toy animals may be laid flat
on the cardboard and its outline drawn and cut.
Noah's Ark animals, if they are large, make ex-
cellent patterns for a child to copy. If one has
no toys of the right size, the tracing paper may be
laid over the picture of an animal in a farm pic-
ture book, or a book that tells about the jungle, or
a book on Natural History. When the outline of
the animal has been neatly traced on the tracing
cloth, it should be transferred to the cardboard
from which the animal is to be made. When a
child has obtained a clear outline in this way, he
may next proceed to make the animals alive. _
First, he must decide just the location of the
animal's joints. Where are the tiger's paws fas-
tened to his legs? Where are the grasshopper's
knees? Where, hidden underneath his shell are
the turtle's funny little flat feet attached to his
body? Then, using the pattern which has just
been made, a new pattern of the creature's body
is made, then a pattern of a leg, a tail, an ear, and
these sections are all cut from the cardboard, sep-
arately, with scissors or the sharp jack-knife. In
cutting out legs and paws, they should be made
always a little longer than the original pattern to
allow for the joint by which they are fastened to
the body. As soon as all the parts of an animal
126 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
have been cut from the cardboard, they should
be laid in place and holes punched with a coarse
needle or an awl at the joints. If the animal is
a huge one, the collar buttons may be slipped in
these holes to hold the sections together. In the
case of the toy creatures shown in the picture, pa-
per fasteners were used. When these joints
have been made the toys will stand or sit, cock
their ears or wag their tails, leap or run — in fact
they will do anything a boy wishes.
The paints come next. It will be great fun to
make the toy animals just the right color. A
tiger may be such a gorgeous yellow with bright
green eyes and black stripes. The grasshopper
may be either green or a warm brown, and the
turtle's house which he must always carry around
on his back should be painted gray.
These jointed animals may be persuaded to act
out the children's favorite stories and will fur-
nish a new kind of fun for rainy afternoons in the
house.
Little Brer Rabbit can be easily made of white
cardboard from the pictures of Peter Rabbit or
the rabbit pictures on an Easter card. Then
Brer Rabbit and Old Man Terrapin may act out
on the nursery table the famous race that Uncle
Remus has told us about. A shoe box may be
JOINTED TOY ANIMALS 127
used for a miniature stage if it is placed on its
side on a table, some scenery is painted in at the
back and a little cloth curtain hung at the front.
Through a hole in one end the jointed animals
may be put in and they will perform most ac-
ceptably for an audience of dolls.
Two children playing together, or two groups
of children can each make a set of jointed animals
and then pose them to illustrate a favorite story,
the other child or group guessing the story illus-
trated.
Many other plays will suggest themselves when
one has a set of animals which are really alive
and which a child has made, all himself.
YOUR OWN CIRCUS
IT is going to be a circus small enough to fit in
any house. In fact, it will be possible to put
it within the boundaries of an old table. Because
you can't always have an outdoor show is just the
reason that you are going to plan this fine, di-
minutive one in the house. It may take several
days to get it ready, but once your indoor circus
is finished, you will find it almost if not quite as
interesting as a real one.
First, find an old table somewhere to be used
as a circus ground. A pine table will serve
nicely, and if you can find some old green muslin
with which to cover it, you will discover that it
looks exactly like the grass in the field where the
real circus is held. Tack the muslin to the under
side of the table top so that it will not wrinkle
and interfere with the circus parade. Now you
are ready for the rope fence which always en-
closes a circus ground.
In the four corners of the table bore, with a
gimlet, through the canvas, some holes that are
just the right size to hold dowel sticks, five inches
129
I30 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
long. You can buy these dowel sticks of a car-
penter in foot lengths at a few cents each. Glue
the posts in the holes which you have bored in
the table and also bore extra holes for two more
about a foot apart in the front of the table.
These last little posts are for the gate to your cir-
cus ground. When the glue has set and the posts
are perfectly dry, tie cord to one, near the top,
and then stretch it to another, knotting it, until
you have finished the rope fence that encloses the
circus ground. If you like you can have two or
three rows of cord, and you can print a little cir-
cus sign to pin to the gate. It may read:
THE GREAT AND ONLY ANIMAL SHOW
Clowns, Wild Beasts, and the Biggest Ele-
phant in the World.
Performances Every Afternoon and Evening.
Admission, Adults, two pins. Children, alone,
one pin.
Come One. Come All!
All around the edges of the bill you can draw
pictures of wild animals with your colored pen-
cils.
The circus ground will look very much pleas-
anter if you have a few trees standing about on
YOUR OWN CIRCUS 131
the edges, and these trees will be useful, also, to
tie some of your wild beasts to.
Meat skewers will do nicely for the tree trunks
if you fringe ever so many narrow, doubled strips
of green tissue paper, and wind them with it, fas-
tening the fringes to the meat skewer with mu-
cilage. The green paper flutters in the air quite
like real foliage in the breeze on circus day, and
the little trees will stand up nicely if you stick the
end of each'skewer inside an empty spool, glue-
ing it there so that it will stay in place.
Did you think that you were never coming to
the tent for your circus? Well, here it is, and
the picture shows you just how to construct it.
You will need to enlarge the diagram several
times the size which you see in the picture, but
that is easily accomplished by means of your
ruler and lead pencil. Use some sort of tough,
firm paper for the tent. Water color paper will
be splendid because you can get out your paint
box and paint pictures of wild men and palm trees
and animals on the sides. If you have no water
color paper, use brown bristol board. The latter
makes a fine stiff tent. Cut out the top and sides
as carefully as you can, bend them, and glue or
paste them together. Then stand the tent up in
the center of your circus ground.
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[132]
YOUR OWN CIRCUS 133
The animals, next.
There are patterns for them, too, which you
will see in the picture and which are so simple as
to be very easily enlarged. The animals can be
made of the same kind of paper which you used
for the tent, and then painted, the elephant gray,
the camel a soft brown and the deer a dull reddish
color, or you can cut them out of wood. This is
perhaps the better way. Use thin pieces of very
soft, white wood. An excellent wood is holly or
soft pine, in the thin sheets which are used for
jig saw work, and for making picture puzzles.
Draw the pattern of the animal which you wish
to make first very carefully on your piece of
wood. Give your best jack-knife two or three
turns on a grindstone so that it will be nice and
sharp, and then go to work cutting the animal,
not your fingers. Make as many animals as you
can, and glue their feet to tiny blocks of kindling
wood so that they will stand. Touch them up a
little with paint, too, to make them look wilder.
If you want cages for your animals use empty
spool boxes, covers and all. Cut bars in the cover
of each box with your jack-knife, stand the Ini-
mal inside and put the cover back on. The box
rests on cardboard wheels which are glued to the
long, narrow side of the box.
134 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
A clever boy will be able to invent the acts for
the circus. One can rig up trapezes and flying
swings and tight rope appliances very easily by
using strings and spools. One can paint flags
of all nations or cut them from colored tissue
paper to float from the roof of the tent, and this
little home-made circus will be so attractive that
all the other boys will want to make similar ones
just as soon as they see it.
BEAD WORK FOR BOYS
THERE is not a boy but has gazed at the
alluring Indian suits in the toy shop win-
dows, wishing that he were able to buy one. It
is so much easier to give a proper war whoop, and
scare a few of the fellows, and execute a wild
war dance, or even sit by a camp fire in the woods
telling stories, if only he is dressed like a real, live
Indian.
Why not make one's own Indian suit ?
It IS perfectly possible for a boy to make him-
self a fine Indian shirt, fringed, and decorated
with beads; a pair of beaded moccasins and
a bead belt in which may be thrust a scalping
knife, a bow and arrow and a few other imple-
ments of war. He may hang all his scalps to the
belt, too.
The only materials needed for the suit will be
three or four large chamois skins — or two yards
of brown denim if the chamois seems too expen-
sive for the young Indian's pocketbook — some
red and blue porcelain beads which may be bought
in strings at any dry goods store for a few cents
135
136 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
a string, a spool of heavy cotton thread, and a
httle patience. With a coarse needle, and a pair
of scissors the boy will be ready for work. Mak-
ing an Indian suit will fill a great many rainy
afternoons full of fun.
The bead belt is the best part of the suit to be-
gin with because a boy can experiment with de-
signs as he weaves the beads together, and he will
be able to form an idea of the pattern he wishes
to use when he embroiders the shirt and the moc-
casins. One will need a bead loom on which to
make the belt. These looms may be bought at a
toy shop, but that is not really necessary. An
old box will do quite as well for a loom. The
belt in the picture was started on the cover of an
old shoe box, and a cigar box with the cover and
the bottom removed makes a fine bead loom. In
making a loom from a wooden box, very small
screw eyes may be put in the ends of the loom,
about one quarter of an inch apart to hold the
threads. In the card board cover shown in the
picture, the warp threads — those are the length-
wise threads in the weaving — are held in place
by pins to which they were knotted at the ends of
the loom.
Fourteen threads are strung on the loom for a
section of the belt, as tightly as the card board
BEAD WORK FOR BOYS 137
will allow of their being stretched. A needle is
then threaded with the coarse cotton thread, and
the end is tied to the warp thread at the top of
the loom at the left. The needle is then brought
out to the right below the warp strands, thirteen
red beads — one less bead than the number of the
warp strands, remember — are strung on the
thread, and the beads are pressed up between the
warp strands so that one bead comes between
every two threads. The needle is then run back
from right to left through the beads above the
warp threads. This makes one row of beads se-
curely woven to the warp. For the second row
of beads, six red beads, one blue one and six more
red ones are strung, the blue bead forming the
beginning of a simple design. The third row has
three blue beads in the center, the fourth has five,
the fifth three, and the sixth one, completing the
design. A row of red beads is then woven in,
after which the unit of design was repeated.
Many different designs will suggest themselves
to the boy bead weaver. A checker board pat-
tern of squares may be used, there may be a plain
border at the edges of the belt, or a Greek fret
may be introduced with charming effect.
When the section of the belt shown in the pic-
ture is finished, it may be removed from the loom.
138 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
the ends of thread being tied securely about the
last row of beads. A second section is strung on
the loom, blue beads being strung first with a de-
sign of red in the center. Four sections, two red
and two blue, may be sewed together to complete
the gay little Indian belt.
Now for the Indian's shirt. The pattern
Indian Shirt Pattern.
which is shown in the picture should be enlarged
according to the scale, one and one half inches
to a foot. If chamois skin is used for the shirt,
probably one large and two smaller skins will
BEAD WORK FOR BOYS 139
need to be joined to give enough material, but
if the shirt is made of brown denim, the pat-
tern may be laid on a length of the cloth, without
piecing, and the shirt is then cut. It will not be
necessary to sew any seams in the shirt. It is
folded over at the neck opening, and tied on the
small boy with narrow strips of leather indicated
in the picture. One strip of leather is tied under
the arms, and the other about the hips. The
bead embroidery finishes the neck and sides of
the shirt. To do this embroidery, a needle is
threaded with coarse linen thread, and knotted at
the end. Starting at the right of the neck, and
close to the edge, the needle is brought through
to the outside of the shirt. Three beads are
then strung. They are held down close to the
shirt and the needle is thrust through the cloth to
the inside again. The needle is then brought
through, close to the first stitch, three more beads
are strung, and the embroidery is continued.
Red and blue beads should be alternated to form
a design. This stitch described is the simplest
one for a boy to use and it is most efifective also,
being the stitch used by the Indians when they
embroidered their own shirts, moccasins, and
leggins.
In starting the embroidery for the sides of the
I40 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
shirt, the bead border should be started about two
inches from the edge, this margin being fringed
carefully with sharp scissors after the beads are
all sewed on. A design of beads, which may be
varied according to the taste and skill of the boy
who makes it, may ornament the front and the
back of the shirt.
Moccasins sound very difficult to make, but
here is a pattern all in one piece, with no trouble-
Moccasin Pattern. Finished Moccasin.
some uppers and soles to be fitted together.
Chamois skin should be used, if possible, for the
moccasins, or the light weight leather which may
be bought at a craft shop for art work and can
easily be sewed. When the pattern of the moc-
casin which is shown in the picture has been en-
larged according to the scale — three inches to a
foot — it is laid on the leather or chamois, and a
A BEAD LOOM MADE OF A BOX COVER
BEAD WORK FOR BOYS 141
pair of moccasins is cut out. It will be found
easier to embroider the toe before the moccasin is
sewed. The sewing which holds the moccasin in
shape is done with very coarse thread in an over
and over stitch. Narrow strips of leather may
be used, also, for the joining, in which case, holes
should be punched with a stiletto and awl to admit
of the leather being passed through the material.
After this joining is completed, the flap indicated
in the picture is folded over on the dotted lines,
and it is embroidered in the same pattern used
to finish the neck and sides of the shirt.
If there is enough of the material that was used
for the shirt left, two long, straight pieces may
be cut, embroidered on the long edges, fringed,
and tied about the Indian's legs for leggins.
A most gorgeous headdress may be made for
the Indian from crepe paper feathers. The
feathers are made by fringing crepe paper and
pasting this fringe to short lengths of flower wire.
Gilt paint will make the feathers even more glo-
rious, and when a number of them are finished,
red, and blue, and green, and yellow— all the
rainbow colors in fact— they may be wired to a
headdress made of stifT cambric or heavy card-
board.
What shall we call the boy when he is dressed
142 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
in his home-made chieftain's suit, which will be
more effective, even, than the one he saw in the
toy shop? Hiawatha, perhaps, as he dons his
war paint and feathers and starts in search of all
sorts of interesting Indian adventures.
HOW TO MAKE STICK PICTURES
IT is a new sort of fun that a boy can have with
just plain, everyday, ordinary sticks. You
can play at being an Indian, too, at the same time
for the Indians did it first and called it picture-
writing.
Suppose you were an Indian child in paint and
feathers, and moccasins. Suppose that you never
went to school, and never had seen a piece of pa-
per or a lead pencil. Then suppose that you
wanted to write a letter to your little red cousin
who lived on the other side of the forest in an-
other tribe, far away from yours.
Of course, you have ever so much to tell your
little red cousin. You want him to know that the
big chief, your father, has just put up a fine new
wigwam of skins for you to live in, a more beauti-
ful wigwam than any other in the village. You
want the cousins to know, too, that the sap has be-
gun to run in the maple tree and soon your moth-
er, Laughing Water, will get out the big kettle
and build a fire of pine branches and boil the fresh,
sweep sap into maple sirup. Then there is a still
143
144 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOiME THINGS
more wonderful thing to tell your little red cousin.
In the full of the last moon, a strange water crea-
ture was seen in the river in front of your wig-
wam. It was white, and large, and it had huge
white wings that the wind filled. It was a pale
face ship — much larger, and very different from
an Indian's canoe.
Now, how are you going to tell all these excit-
ing things to the far-away little red cousin when
you have no pencil and no paper for a letter, and
there is no postman and no railway train to carry
a letter to the other tribe? Why, it is going to
be the easiest thing in the world to do. Make
some stick pictures that will tell all the stories
that you would like to write if you only knew how.
In the forest there is a fine old hunting ground.
You know just the spot where all the tribes gather
and build their great camp fires, and cook the
game, and dance in the evening when the hunt is
done. Before another moon your cousin's tribe
will be there. And you are going now, to the
hunting ground, to make some stick pictures for
that little Indian boy to find. Then he will under-
stand that you have been there and you were
thinking of him.
Jump into your canoe and paddle down the
river. Tie the canoe fast to the bank, then jump
HOW TO MAKE STICK PICTURES 145
out and plunge into the forest. You know the
way to go, for the moss grows on the north side
of the trees. There, you have come to a cleared
spot in the deep, deep woods. There isn't any
sound save the chattering of the chipmunks.
They won't disturb your picture writing. Now
you may go to work.
You break many of the straight, stout twigs
from the pine tree. Some of the twigs must be
long, and others you will break off short to fit
together where there are corners in the pictures.
There is a smooth bed of moss under the pine tree.
That will be a splendid place for your picture
writing. First, you will make a picture of the
new wigwam. Just two long sticks, crossed at
the top will make the outline, and you put two
short sticks together to show the door. Now, for
the maple tree. You will lay a long stick down
on the moss to show the outline of the tree.
Some shorter sticks, laid close to the sides of the
longer stick make the branches. The pale face
ship may be more difficult to make, but you will
be able to outline the picture with your sticks.
There are the sloping sides of the ship and there
are the sails.
The picture letter is done. When the little
cousin finds it there in the woods he will know all
146 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
about the new wigwam, and the maple sirup, and
the strange ship. You travel home again if you
are a little Indian boy, and you don't mind in the
least not having a pencil, or a postman.
How may a little pale face child play at picture
writing?
If it is vacation time, you can gather sticks in
the woods just as the little Indian boy did. Be
sure that they are long, straight ones, though.
You may sit in the grass and lay your stick pic-
tures on the lawn, or you may make them on the
floor of the piazza.
If you want to make stick pictures in the house
on a stormy day, ask mother to let you use her
sewing table to put them on, or you can lay them
on the kitchen floor, or the nursery hearth rug.
For the indoor stick pictures, you can use burnt
matches, or toothpicks, or clothes pins — anything
long and straight will do. You can buy colored
sticks at a kindergarten shop, and those will be
the best of all for stick pictures. And if you have
a game of jackstraws, the straws may be used
for the pictures.
The Indians had no picture books, but you have.
You can play a game with the stick pictures.
You can make pictures to illustrate one of your
favorite stories, and then ask the boy or girl who
HOW TO MAKE STICK PICTURES 147
is playing with you to try and guess what the
story is that fits the picture.
A splendid story to illustrate with stick pic-
tures is The Three Bears.
Here is their house.
Here is the table that held the three bowls of
porridge.
Here are their three chairs.
And here are their three beds.
A TOY INDIAN VILLAGE
JUST fancy an encampment of real, live In-
dians in the house in a little Indian village
that you made all yourself! It will be the best
sort of fun to make the camp, and when it is done
it will be a fine, new plaything for all winter long,
as the toy Indians have sham fights, and May
dances and tell each other stories around their
tiny camp fires. And this is the way to make the
fascinating toy.
A long, shallow tin with very narrow sides is
the foundation for the Indian village. The tin-
smith has large sheets of bright new tin, and he
will make you one of these shallow tin trays for
just a few cents. The florist will give you a bas-
ket of soft, black earth — enough to fill the tray —
and you can mold and pat it into tiny hills and
queer little valleys, and long foot paths, no wider
than your little finger for the toy Indians to trail
up and down.
You must take a long walk now as far as the
woods to find some sprays of white pine, hemlock,
and spruce for the Indians' trees. Gather some
149
ISO BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
little straight twigs, too, for wigwam founda-
tions, and if the ground is still bare, pick up some
of the prettiest pebbles you can find for make-be-
lieve rocks in the Indian encampment. With
your jack-knife strip from the birch tree just a
very little bark to make an Indian canoe — not
much, for it takes a birch a long, long time to
grow more bark. Then you may go home again,
but on the way, buy a penny's worth of grass seed
at the florist's. What are you to do with all these
things ?
Just listen, and you will find out.
Scatter the grass seed very softly over the
earth in your tray and sprinkle it with the rubber
bulb sprayer that mother uses for her house ferns.
You would not believe it perhaps, but in a week or
ten days your little Indian camp ground will be
covered with a carpet of soft, green grass really
growing in the earth. After you have planted
the grass seed, stick the little evergreen trees in
the earth and lay your pebbles about as if they
really belonged there on the ground. In one
corner of the tray, if mother is willing, you may
sink a shallow, round cake tin filled with water to
make a miniature lake, and about the lake you
can put a border of stones covered with the moss
that comes in a box of Noah's Ark animals. The
A TOY INDIAN VILLAGE 151
Pattern for Toy Wigwam,
152 BOYS' MAKE- AT-HOME THINGS
tray of earth is quite transformed now into a tiny
forest.
Under the trees the Indian wigwams are scat-
tered. Making these tepees is ever so much fun
and will fill a long winter evening after your les-
sons are learned and you have the library table
free to work on. Fig. i shows you how to cut
out an Indian wigwam, and heavy dark brown
paper or brown canvas is a strong material to use.
When the wigwam is cut, it may be decorated
with paints in any design you wish. A border of
small squares is an attractive decoration, or some
grotesque heads and bows and arrows may be
painted on. Gold or red paper stars and cres-
cents and suns may be cut and glued to the outside
of the wigwam, forming a very gay scheme of
trimming it, or very tiny autumn leaves may be
waxed and glued on. When a number of these
little wigwams have been cut, decorated, and
glued together, as shown in Fig. 2, place them in
your play forest, using two or three twigs crossed
for supports, the ends extending through the
hole in the top of the wigwam.
Now you can make the Indians. English wal-
nuts form the heads. These are just the right
size, brown enough for the complexion of any In-
dian, and nicely wrinkled, too. With a sharp
A TOY INDIAN VILLAGE 153
jack-knife smooth down a few of the wahiut's
wrinkles, and carve the Indian's features, trying
to give him high cheek bones. Color his cheeks
with vermilion and paint his face, too, in as many
different colors as you like. A roll of stiff paper
or cloth glued to the nut head makes the Indian's
body, about which is wrapped a blanket of fringed
crepe paper, red flannel, or any sort of gay stuff
that mother will give you. This walnut Indian
wears a marvelous feather headdress. The
feathers come from the chicken yard or the oldest
feather duster — whichever source is available —
and they are glued to a strip of brown paper
which, in turn is glued to the little Indian's head.
There should be a whole tribe of Indians, as
many as you can make before bedtime, and when
it comes morning run up to the play room and
stand the Indian braves at the doors of their wig-
wams or in the little path between the trees where
they can see their real green grass coming up, and
enjoy the friendly shelter of their fine little camp-
ing ground.
These nut Indians will need bows and arrows
when they have sham battles. Tiny twigs may
be bent bow shape with rubber bands for bow
strings and burned out matches may be sharpened
to a point for arrows. Toothpicks make arrows,
154 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
too. A bow and a bundle of arrows may be laid
at the door of each little Indian's wigwam. The
canoe that floats on the tin pan lake is made of
a strip of folded birch bark shaped at the ends
like a real canoe and stitched with brown linen
thread. It will really float if it is carefully made.
For a camp fire, pile up some broken twigs in a
cleared spot in your Indian encampment and put
in some scraps of twisted, red tissue paper which
will look like flames. One of the kettles from the
dolls' kitchen may hang on a forked stick over
this make-believe fire to cook the dinner for the
walnut Indian tribe.
This play Indian village will last all winter, a
comfortable camping ground for the tribe, and a
delightful plaything for the clever boy who
made it.
There may be some walnut squaws added per-
haps, and some peanut papooses wrapped in
blankets cut from a scrap of old chamois and hung
contentedly by thread to the sheltering trees.
The grass will grow so high that it may have to
be mowed with the nursery scissors, and when
the trees fade, more can be gathered and put in
the places of the old ones.
CORN TOYS AND HOW TO MAKE THEM
CORN cobs really look as if they would like
to play. There is a whole binfiil out in
the barn, and the chickens do not want them and
neither does the farmer. He will make a big bon-
fire out in the wood lot some day and burn up all
the corn cobs if the children do not take posses-
sion of them first, and help them to play by mak-
ing them into toys.
What fine, long, straight little logs they are for
a log cabin, or they might be made into Indian
or toy rafts, or a rail fence, or almost anything
else a child chooses.
First you can make a little rail fence that
stretches across one corner of the barn floor. To
do this, lay down six corn cobs in zigzag fashion
on the floor with the ends not quite as far apart
as the cobs are long. Then across every two cob
ends lay another cob and finish the fence in this
way, making it very snug.
Behind the fence lives Apple Johnny. He
owns the farm whose boundary lines the fence
marks out on the floor. Apple Johnny has a little
155
156 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
hard apple for his head joined by a toothpick to
a fat apple that forms his body. His legs and
arms are twigs and his face is cut with a jack-
knife in the smaller apple. Apple Johnny has a
herd of wild potato horses on his farm. Each po-
tato has four twig legs, and a flowing mane, made
of a fringed corn husk pinned to the long end of
the potato, and a straw tail pinned to the other
end.
As you put the last corn cob in the fence, you
heard the rain just pouring and pouring on the
barn eaves. Suppose the roof of the barn should
cave in and the whole inside be flooded I What
would poor little Apple Johnny do, and how would
he ever make his escape? Apple Johnny must
have a raft. Select six more corn cobs from the
binful, all of them just the same length, and lay
them down on the barn floor, side by side. In one
of the corners of the barn is an old last summer's
berry basket. Strip off two bits of the binding
rim as long as the row of cobs is wide. Xail one
to each end of the row of corn cobs, putting a
nail in each cob, which holds the small raft firmly
in place. Then turn the raft right side up and
to one end nail a long, straight twig for a mast,
to which you can glue a white paper sail. It is
a fine little raft when it is completed, and strong
CORN TOYS 157
enough to carry Apple Johnny and a potato horse
or two safely through any possible flood.
But Apple Johnny has no house. Well, a
house is easily planned when one has a whole bin
of corn cobs to draw upon for building materials.
Gather an armful of cobs and make a corn-cob
house. Lay two corn cobs opposite each other,
and two more across the ends, log cabin fashion,
driving nails through to hold them together.
Next, put two more corn cobs over the first
tw^o and two more over the second, until the house
is twice as high as Apple Johnny is tall. For a
roof, nail two sides of the berry basket to the log
cabin, and then with a rip saw cut out a front door
high enough to let Apple Johnny step through.
There will be rather wide chinks in the house, but
you can play that these are windows through
which Apple Johnny can watch for the corn-cob
Indians and shoot at them with a twig musket
when he sees them coming.
You can make a whole tribe of these corn-cob
Indians, and it will be the most fun of all, even
jollier than making a corn-cob fence, and a raft,
and a house. First, wind corn husks around a
cob to make the Indian's clothes, but leave one
end, th€ larger end of the cob, uncovered because
that is going to be the Indian's head. Then on
158 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
this end, mark a face with a bit of charcoal ; eyes,
nose, and mouth ; and paint the cheeks red with a
crushed cranberry, rubbing the juice on the corn
cob. The hens' nests in the barn are full of ever
so many pretty feathers, so you can collect as
many of these as you wish and glue them to the
corn-cob Indian's head for his headdress. Last
of all, ask mother if she is willing to give you a
few pieces of the left over plain cloth from sister's
school dress for the corn-cob Indian's blanket.
Of course mother is willing. Almost every moth-
er is willing to give a boy things when he is try-
ing to amuse himself all alone. She may even cut
a square of gay plaid from the piece of cloth itself
and turn out all the pieces from her sewing bag,
where there are other scraps just right for In-
dians' blankets; red flannel, and gray serge like
your last winter suit, and brown merino, and yel-
low silk.
The Indian looks very splendid indeed in his
feather headdress and a red plaid blanket. All
he needs then is a bow and quiver of arrows.
The bow you can make by bending a length of
willow and tying a piece of cord across. The
arrows are shorter, pointed twigs with a very
small hen's feather tied to the end of each.
This Indian you can name Chief Big Cob.
HOW TO MAKE A MARBLE BAG
NOBODY knows why the first of March
brings marbles, but it certainly does. Some
games really belong to the season in which they
come as coasting and snowfights, but other games
are played at certain times of the year for no rea-
son except that they always have been and always
will be. If some one should ask a boy — any boy,
why it wouldn't be better to play football in the
summer and baseball at Thanksgiving time, he
couldn't tell you, but his sense of the fitness of
things would be outraged.
And so, when the snow goes away, and the frost
comes out of , the ground, and the sap begins to
run in the trees, and a boy's toes wiggle and wig-
gle and long to kick out of his shoes and dig
themselves into the soft mud, it is quite the proper
thing for him to hunt up all his last year's marbles,
and ask his sister — or somebody else's sister — to
make him a bag to hold them, so that he will be
ready for the season's marble campaign.
The simplest marble bag to make is one which
is made in just the same way as a tobacco pouch.
159
i6o BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
Take an oblong piece of heavy tan canvas, meas-
uring twelve inches long by five inches wide.
Tan does not show the dirt readily, and the
heavier the material is the better, for the bag is
not going to be gently handled. Double this piece
of canvas in the center, so that it forms a bag six
inches deep by five wide. Sew up the two side
seams with a coarse needle and very heavy linen
thread, and make the seams very strong. The
sewing should be about a quarter of an inch back
from the edges. Then ''scrape" the seams open,
which simply means to run your thumb nail along
the seams right where the joining is, so that one
raw edge shall be folded toward each side. Next
make a hem at the top by folding the material
over once, and then again. This hem should be
about a quarter of an inch wide, and in sewing
it down leave a space unsewed on one side where
it crosses the seam, so that the draw string can
be run in. Turn your bag so that it will be
right side out, and the seaming all on the in-
side. A piece of heavy, wrapping-paper twine
twelve inches long will make a fine draw string,
by running it through the hem with a bodkin and
tying the two ends together.
Another marble bag that will prove very satis-
factory, and will be so unusual that the boy who
F7a /
Pattern of a Marble Bag.
[i6i]
1 62 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
owns it can gloat over the other fellows, is made
of very heavy chamois, or buckskin. A paper
pattern is made first, like Fig. i. It measures
two and a half inches across the top, four and a
half inches from side to side at a point three and
three-quarters inches below the top, and its height
is six and a half inches. After these points have
been determined a boy can mark in the vase
shaped outline freehand. When the pattern is
made and cut out, lay it on the buckskin, holding
it carefully, so that it will not slip, and cut four
pieces just alike. Then take a large darning
needle or a *'rug" needle and thread it with a
strand of raffia. If red, or blue, or green raffia
are used instead of the ordinary natural color, it
will make the sewing very decorative. Take two
of the pieces of buckskin, and, beginning at the
bottom, sew them together with the stitch that
is used for making baseballs. This is done by
taking a stitch up from underneath, then cross-
ing over, and taking a stitch up from the un-
der side of the other piece, then back to the
first piece and so on, drawing the raffia snug
each time. Instead of making a knot at the be-
ginning, leave the raffia hanging loose for about
an inch or more, and when the top of the seam
HOW TO MAKE A MARBLE BAG 163
is reached, fasten the raffia tight before cut-
ting off. Next join the third piece to the sec-
ond in the same way, the fourth to the third,
and then the fourth to the first, so that all four
together form a bag. Take the four ends of raf-
fia at the bottom and knot them snugly together,
two by two. They may be trimmed off short, or
left hanging loose to form a tassel for decoration.
Now take a narrow piece of soft wood and slip
it inside the mouth of the bag, so that you can cut
slits for the draw string. They are cut with a
sharp penknife and should come just at the nar-
rowest part, or neck of the bag. If the upper
ends of the cuts are three-quarters of an inch
from the top of the bag, and the cuts themselves a
half inch long, they will be about right. There
are four cuts in each section making sixteen cuts
in all. Next take three pieces of raffia twenty-
four inches long. Knot the three together at one
end, and then braid them tightly into a cord.
When the other end is reached knot it as you did
the first. String this cord through the slits in
the neck of the bag just as though you were weav-
ing— under one, over one, under one, over one —
and then when it is all strung, tie the two ends
together in a square knot.
i64 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
It makes an exceedingly unique bag, and will
hold all the marbles a boy can win, and besides
winning marbles he will win the envy of every
other boy who sees his fine, new marble bag.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN SCHOOL
BOX
EVERY boy needs a pencil box. Plain little
oblong boxes most of them, with a flat hinged
cover, and a little lock that you keep carefully
fastened with the key. That is, a boy locks his
pencil box when he is able to find the key, but
whether it was in his pocket, or fastened to his
watch chain, the school-box key always does man-
age to get away, somewhere — to make its escape.
One day, however, the boy sees displayed in the
window of a stationery shop, a new sort of pencil
box, a most fascinating kind. The cover of the
box is made of narrow strips of wood fastened
side by side like the strips in the top of a roll-top
desk, and when the shopman opens the pencil box
to show the boy the inside, the cover just slides
right back out of sight, while the boy looks on in
open-eyed astonishment. The shopman's supply
of these magic boxes is limited, though, and there
is a wild scramble for their possession among the
boys who can produce ten cents — for that is the
exorbitant price charged by the shopman. The
165
1 66 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
boy wants one of those magic boxes. His fingers
just tingle and burn to hold one and try to make
the cover slide in its charming way, but he has
only five cents, he can't buy one.
The boy will be able to make his own pencil box,
though, and this is the way he must go about it
in order to construct one of those fascinating,
roll-top ones, just like the one in the shop window.
In the first place, a boy must know how to whit-
tle. All that he needs in the way of material is a
jack-knife, some pieces of wood three-sixteenths
of an inch thick, some more pieces an eighth thick,
a strip of white cloth, and some little three-eighth
inch nails.
The first piece to make (Fig. i) is the side of
the box. It is just a plain oblong of the three-six-
teenth inch wood, measuring nine inches long by
two and a quarter inches wide. All the pieces are
made three-sixteenths thick except the strips for
the cover. Two of these sides are necessary of
course.
Next come two strips nine inches long and a
quarter of an inch wide which are fastened,
notched side up on the inside of each side, ''flush"
— even — that is, with the top, with four little
nails driven from the outside. The piece which
is cut from the end of each of these, as shown in
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YOUR OWN SCHOOL BOX 169
the drawing, is to make a joint which is later to
be fitted with Fig. 10.
Fig. 3 is eight and nine-sixteenths inches long
and one and seven-sixteenths wide and one end
is rounded into a half circle. Figs. 3 and 4 are
nailed in position on the inside of the side pieces,
and together they form the track around which
the cover runs. Two of each are required.
Fig. 5 is the bottom piece, and is simply an ob-
long nine inches long by two and a half wide.
It is placed in position with the side pieces up-
right on either side of it and nailed from the out-
side.
It is best to make the cover next, so that you
can test it and see that it works smoothly before
any more of the box is put together. It is made
of little strips (Fig. 6) three-eighths of an inch
wide and two and a half inches long, "sliding fit,"
which means that they are to be a little less
than two and a half, so that they will slide in a
space two and a half inches wide. A sharp rub
on the ends with sandpaper will make this slight
difference. There are twenty-two of these strips,
and they are glued side by side on a strip of white
muslin cloth. If you use a piece with a selvage
on one side, you will be more sure of making the
cover perfectly straight.
I70 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
Fig. 7 is the handle and is to be nailed flat to
the second strip — the one next to the end strip.
Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 are a false bottom and false
end, which form the receptacle for the pencils, and
hide the mechanism of the cover. They are
nailed in position as shown in Fig. 12. The nails
to fasten these in place must be a little longer than
the others, because they have to be nailed from the
outside and must go through two thicknesses of
wood and project into a third.
The next piece to make is Fig. 10 — an oblong
measuring one and a half inches by two and a half,
and cut to make a joint with Fig. 2. This is
placed across the top and nailed down, covering
the rounding end of the "track.''
Now the cover may be slipped into position and
the end pieces (Fig. 11), oblongs two and a quar-
ter inches by two and seven-eighths, nailed on,
and the box is done.
It is a convenient size, the receptacle for pencils
is ample, and to one who does not know, the dis-
appearance of that cover when it opens is a mys-
tery that borders on black art.
A HOME-MADE CHRISTMAS TREE
STAND
NOBODY will deny that a Christmas tree has
plenty of backbone, but somehow it doesn't
seem to have intelligence enough to use it. Or
else it resents the taking away of its roots and the
substitution of a shop-made standard that it con-
siders inadequate. As a matter of fact the stand-
ards that you can buy in the shops are inadequate
for a tree of any size. And so, if the boy of the
family is handy with tools, it is up to him to make
one.
A very good standard for a Christmas tree —
strong, durable, and ornamental as well — may be
made from a strip of one-by-two-inch ^'dressed"
lumber 12 ft. long (which costs about a cent and
a half a foot), and some pieces of an old dry
goods box.
First, saw off from your one-by-two-inch strip
four pieces twelve inches long and four pieces
eleven inches. These are to make Figs, i, 2, and
4. Make four pieces like Fig. i and two pieces
171
172 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
like Fig. 2 ; the notch at the end is cut with a saw
across the grain, and then spht out with a chisel.
When these are done, join two of the twelve-
inch pieces and two of the eleven inch to form a
square frame. The joint is shown in Fig. 3, and
it should be glued or nailed, or both, which is
safer.
Next make the other two eleven-inch pieces like
Fig. 4. These are just like Fig. 2 except that a
groove four inches wide and one inch deep is cut
in the middle of each. Then they are joined with
the other twelve-inch pieces to form a frame simi-
lar to the first. The first frame is to go at the
bottom of the standard, and the second frame,
placed with the grooves tip, is for the top.
Now cut from the remainder of the strip two
more pieces twelve inches long. With a compass
set at an inch-and-a-half radius, and the center in
the exact middle of one edge, draw a half circle
on each, and chip it out with a chisel like Fig. 5.
The use of these will be described later.
The remainder of the strip will make four pieces
eighteen inches long, with a bit left over. These
are to stand on their two-inch faces, and the upper
edges of each end should be rounded off with a
''block'' plane. Then two grooves are cut in each
piece, two of the pieces having the grooves on the
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1-
A CHRISTMAS TREE STAND 175
upper side and two on the under side, like Figs.
6 and 7.
Now cut from your packing box sixteen strips
AAA
Christmas Tree Stand.
or pickets one and three-quarters inches wide and
fourteen inches long, like Fig. 8. These may be
"ripped out" with a saw and smoothed up with a
plane and sandpaper.
176 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
To "assemble" the standard join first the two
Fig. 6 strips and two Fig. 7. This leaves a hole
two inches square in the center and two strips
projecting from each of the four sides. Place the
first square frame that you made on this, so that
its sides will be equally distant from the center,
and nail in position. Next nail the pickets in po-
sition so that the lower end of the pickets will be
"flush" with the lower side of the frame. Next,
hold the upper frame, with the grooves up,
in position, eight inches above the lower frame
and nail the pickets to that. Fig. 9 shows the
complete assembly.
Now give the frame, and the two pieces like
Fig. 5 a coat of dark green paint, and the standard
is ready for use. Slip the tree into the square
hole in the base. If the trunk is a bit too large,
whittle it to fit. Then place the two pieces like
Fig. 5 around the trunk at the top of the frame
for a clamp, and slip them into the grooves in the
upper frame, and you will find your tree quite
ready to stand up and behave.
HOW TO WRAP CHRISTMAS PARCELS
HOW many boys and big folks, too, have at
some time received a Christmas gift which
WRS broken, or crushed, or spoiled in some w^ay
through the careless packing of the sender. Even
at ordinary times the mail service and Express
Companies are hard enough upon packages given
to their care. The term "baggage-smasher"
ought not to be restricted to the employees of the
railways alone, and when at Christmas time the
mails and express lines are congested with pack-
ages of all descriptions, and the men are tired and
overworked trying to deliver gifts that have been
sent at the last minute — then it is doubly needful
to insure the safety of your Christmas presents by
careful packing.
Of course the wrapping of a gift cannot change
its value, but you should bear in mind that your
gift will seem doubly attractive to the one who re-
ceives it, if inside of the serviceable outside wrap-
ping, there is another dainty one, and the expense
is so trifling that it need hardly be considered. A
dozen sheets of tissue paper cost only a dime.
177
178 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
Pure white or warm ''Christmassy" red are the
most desirable kinds. Another dime will pur-
chase a box of Christmas seals — small ones with
pictures of holly and mistletoe, or large ones with
Santa Claus heads or Christmas bells on them.
If you prefer tying, to sealing, the ten cents will
buy a dozen yards of ''tying" ribbon, which is
crimson "baby" ribbon in a cheaper grade than
is ordinarily sold. Gilt cord is also very attrac-
tive for tying up gifts, and a tiny spray of holly
tucked under the cord or ribbon gives a final
dainty Christmas touch.
Perhaps, though, you live so far away from a
town that you are not able to buy these Christmas
seals, and the tying ribbon. Almost, if not quite
as pretty to fasten the inside tissue paper wrap-
ping of a gift will be some very tiny, red maple
leaves gathered in the fall with the thought of
Christmas in mind, and pressed with a hot flat
iron on which some beeswax has been rubbed.
This preserves the bright color of the leaves and
keeps them stiff until you need to use them.
After carefully folding in the ends of the tissue
paper about the gift, the paper is fastened down
by gluing on a few of these gay, pressed leaves,
and in the folds of the paper a wee spray of pine
or a little wreath made of ground pine, or a bunch
TO WRAP CHRISTMAS PARCELS 179
of partridge berries may be tucked. Another
way of making a gift look like the country is to
tie it with strands of sweet grass.
When the gifts are wrapped, and you are ready
to pack them for shipment, there are a few gen-
eral rules that must be remembered.
First: That the gifts must be packed as
snugly as it is possible to do without harming
them.
Second: That nothing— not even excelsior-
is quite as effective in stopping the transmission
of bumps and jars as crumpled up newspapers.
Third : That the name and address of the per-
son to whom the gift is sent and also the address
of the sender must be legibly written in your best
school hand on the outer covering where they are
not liable to be torn off. You must remember
that, while the names and addresses are perfectly
familiar to you, they are totally unknown to the
men through whose hands the parcels go, and in
handling thousands of packages, illegible writing
means much delay.
The rule of packing things tightly refers to
everything— t\^n things which would seem most
crushable, for there is far more harm done by
packing these loosely so that they slip around with
every turn of the package, than by crushing them
i8o BOYS' MAKE- AT-HOME THINGS
flat in one position. Take a delicate waist, for
instance. If packed loosely, it will come out of
its box rumpled and wrinkled in every direction,
but if it is folded flat, the sleeves stufTed with
crumpled tissue paper, and the spaces around it in
the box filled with the same, it will reach its des-
tination quite as fresh as when it started.
It is better to box all gifts if possible. Very
pretty Christmas boxes of all sizes and shapes ma}'
be bought in the shops, or, in place of these, you
can use empty candy boxes which most people
stow away for just such purposes.
Do not select a box that is too small and leaves
too little space for filling in with crushed paper^
and try and think, too, of the weight of the gift
in selecting your box.
If you are packing odd pieces of china, wrap
each piece separately, and see that they are well
segregated with the crushed paper. If you are
packing a number of pieces of uniform size and
shape — such as saucers, plates, etc.— place them
in a pile with every second one well wrapped.
Then wrap the whole pile and pack edgewise,
China should be packed in a wooden box, with
an addressed baggage tag nailed on, or the ad-
dress put on the wood itself with India ink.
Flat things, calendars, cards, photographs, and
TO WRAP CHRISTMAS PARCELS i8i
handkerchiefs, gloves, neckties, ribbons, etc. if
unboxed, must be protected by pasteboard. For
this, the corrugated pasteboard that is used by
department stores is much more effective than
the ordinary flat sort. It is much less easily bent,
and is lighter in weight, which is of course a great
advantage, because it makes the cost of mailing
less.
This corrugated pasteboard is also very good
for wrapping things which are light in weight,
but bulky and of awkward shape, for it may be
rolled to accommodate almost any object.
Doilies, centerpieces, and other flat embroid-
eries must necessarily be kept uncreased in ship-
ping, but are too large to be sent flat. Lay them
first on a sheet of heavy wrapping paper, cut
square and slightly larger than the embroidered
piece. Then lay over the embroidery a sheet of
tissue paper, and carefully roll the whole thing.
Then form a tubular covering of the corrugated
pasteboard, and wrap with hardware paper out-
side. In tying up a tube, the cord should go twice
around the tube — once near each end — and the
cord which goes lengthwise should go through
the opening of the tube so that the contents will
not slip out.
In tying packages for mailing, use good strong
i82 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
cord, and remember that a package must bear no
kind of a seal and contain no kind of writing
beyond a simple Christmas greeting if it is to go
as "merchandise/^ Even one of the little paper
seals stuck over the string will render the pack-
age "first class" and subject to letter postage.
Just one more thing to be remembered at
Christmas time. Courtesy is only another name
for kindness, and it would be discourteous to send
a gift which was not fully prepaid; or to send a
gift "across the line,'' which is dutiable to any
great extent. And in courtesy to the men and
women who have to handle your gifts on their
journeys, send your Christmas presents long
enough ahead of time so that these men and
women may not be too tired when Christmas
comes to feel themselves its blessed peace and
cheer.
YOUR OWN WIRELESS RECEIVING
STATION
MOST boys are interested in wireless teleg-
raphy, and it is possible for any one of
them to make a simple apparatus by which they
can "cut in" and receive any wireless message
that happens to be passing through their particu-
lar zone.
The receiving set will require a number of dif-
ferent parts, but they are easily made — when one
knows how.
For actual hearing you will need a telephone
receiver of some sort. One may be bought for
about seventy-five cents at an electrical supply
house, or an old one, provided it is in good con-
dition, may be used.
Next comes a "detector.'' This consists of a
wooden base about six inches long by four wide
and an inch thick, on which is mounted a piece of
silicon about the size of an egg. An insulated
wire passed once around the silicon and then
through two holes in the base will hold the silicon
in position in the center of the block. Put a brass
screw an inch long at each end of the block and
183
i84 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
"connect up" the silicon in the following way:
First take a piece of No. 22 single-covered copper
wire, scrape off a few inches of the covering, and
wind this bare copper wire several times around a
small round stick to form a spring. The bare end
of the spring must be filed to a point and rest
against one end of the silicon, wdiile the other end
\ i
fYooe^er) 3ss<
Detector.
of the wire is wound around one of the brass
screws. Next, take a piece of ordinary insulated
telephone wire, bare one end far enough to wind
firmly around the free end of the piece of silicon.
and then wind the other end of this wire around
the second brass screw. This makes a metallic
circuit through the silicon which will "make" or
"break" with the touching or removing of the
spring.
Next you need a "tuning coil." This has a
wooden base twelve inches by six and an inch
thick. To make the coil itself a stick twelve
inches long and one and a half inches in diam-
eter— a piece of an old curtain pole will do
WIRELESS RECEIVING STATION 185
— and wind carefully on it a half pound of the
No. 22 single-covered copper wire. The end
of this wire is fastened to the stick with a
small tack, and it should be wound very evenly
and closely. The last end is left free for a con-
nection. After it is wound give the wire three
coats of shellac, making sure that each coat
is dry before another one is put on. When it is
thoroughly dry mark two straight lines from end
7b jDe^ec/o-i
Tuning Coil.
to end, a quarter of an inch apart. With a sharp
knife scrape off the insulation so that the wires
are bare on the outside, but be careful not to dis-
turb the insulation between the wires. To mount
the coil, nail at each end a wooden strip three
inches wide, three and a half high and one inch
thick. This has also to be nailed to the base, and
it should be placed so that the coil will clear the
base by a half inch. The strip of bare wire on
the coil should be uppermost. Now get a brass
1 86 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
rod one quarter of an inch square and thirteen
inches long; a thin brass strip one quarter inch
wide and two inches long; another strip one inch
wide and one and one-quarter inches long; and
two round headed brass screws. Bend the wider
brass strip around the brass rod to form a slider.
Bend the narrow brass strip in the center to form
a V spring. Solder one end of this to the slider
so that it is in the position shown in the drawing.
Slip the slider on the brass rod, place the rod in
position directly over the pathway of bared wire
on the coil so that the lower end of the V spring
will press on this pathway, and fasten the rod se-
curely with the brass screws to the wooden end
pieces.
For the ''aerial" get three or four hundred feet
of wire — No. i6 galvanized wire will do, though
Aer^fSt h'/'T-e.
^J
\ ,
7b St^^.o^y.
/ler/a/ tr^r^
o /n^u/ak-^or /^>7oi>s.
Aerial.
WIRELESS RECEIVING STATION 187
aluminum or copper wire is better — some insula-
tor knobs, and two cross spreaders three feet
long. The parallel wires in the aerial should be
at least two feet apart, and the aerial should be
placed as high as possible so that surrounding
buildings, etc., will not interfere with the wire-
yrtre'h /Jer/a/.
hf^rf.
^
Scren!^ ^
Ui
II
Scret£^
ytire
to
Qrcu,
to Cc//,
7i
Switch.
less wave. The bare wires, wherever they are
fastened to poles or trees must, of course, be
wound around insulators. For a ground con-
nection, fasten an ordinary insulated wire to a
water pipe or to a piece of iron pipe sunk five feet
in damp ground. A safety switch may be made,
like the drawing, from a piece of wood six inches
i88 BOYS' MAKE-AT-HOME THINGS
square and an inch thick, a piece of stiff brass
three inches long and a half inch wide, and three
round-headed brass screws.
This completes the separate parts of the receiv-
ing apparatus. To connect it up for use, follow
//TS^A^/e^ hT/re
7b Qroun
hri9t^r /^/?^
Diagram of Circuit.
the circuit diagram. One wire from the aerial
leads through the safety switch to the tuning coil.
From the tuning coil carry an insulated wire to
the detector, and from the detector to the ground.
The receiver has two wires leading from it — one
to a point between the detector and the tuning coil,
WIRELESS RECEIVING STATION 189
and the other to a similar point between the detec-
tor and the ground. When not in use the aerial
should be connected directly with the ground by
means of the safety switch. Where two wires
are connected they must of course have the insula-
tion scraped off so that bare wire rests against
bare wire.
When you have learned to translate your mes-
sages you will be able to do quite a bit of wireless
eavesdropping, and your receiver will click with
countless messages.
THE END
SEP 23 1912